A WOMAN who stabbed her partner in the chest with a steak knife has walked free from court.

Denise Pemberton, 53, had been making a sandwich when she and her partner David Hughes began arguing.

She stabbed him in the chest and then ran up the stairs shouting to his daughter: “I’ve stabbed him. Do something.”

Pemberton, of Caia Road, Wrexham, who admitted a charge of unlawful wounding at an earlier hearing, received a 12 month community order under which she was told to carry out 80 hours unpaid work in the community.

Judge Dafydd Hughes, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said the victim did not wish to make a complaint.

She was a person of good character who had pleaded guilty and he said there was no evidence to suggest she was a violent person.

“It is a serious offence but it is not necessary for me to send you to prison,” he said.
Elizabeth Bell, prosecuting, said Mr Hughes, 59, and the defendant had been in a relationship for some seven years.

On July 5 this year they went out drinking together and returned home at 10pm where further drinking took place.

The defendant argued with the victim while she was making a sandwich and during the argument Mr Hughes was stabbed in the chest by the defendant.

The victim would not make a statement of complaint and his daughter found him holding his chest with blood over his hands.

He told her: “I’m fine. I can’t believe she stabbed me.”

Paramedics were called and saw a puncture wound the size of a thumb to the left breast area.

Fortunately it was superficial and was closed at hospital with steri-strips.

A four inch steak knife was found at the scene.

Pemberton made no comment when she was interviewed.

Catherine Jagger, defending, said the couple were now reconciled and her partner had not wanted to make a complaint.

Pemberton had pleaded guilty to the offence for which she deserved credit.

She was a woman of no previous convictions who was not a violent person.

She had previously been bailed on condition she does not approach the victim or his address, but the court heard that he wanted her back.