A woman who attacked her partner with a knife has avoided an immediate jail term.

The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard that Lorraine Hicklin, 63, had a history of alcohol-related offending.

Prosecutor Peter Connick said that Hicklin had approached her victim from behind as he sat in her kitchen, and struck him six times to the back of his head with a serrated knife.

Fortunately, his injuries were not too serious. He suffered a number of superficial lacerations to his head and a cut to a finger.

Hicklin, of Buck’s Road, Douglas, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard that her victim, a taxi driver, had subsequently died from an unrelated illness.

He had rekindled a relationship with the defendant four months before the attack and they had gone on holiday together, the court heard - but then he suspected she was having an affair with another man.

In a basis of plea, Hicklin said she had been angry at the accusation he had made against her.

She said she had taken the knife, which she had been using to chop vegetables for a casserole and struck him a number of times but not with a stabbing motion.

The court heard that the defendant had received suspended sentences for previous offences of affray, assault of a police officer and common assault.

Defence advocate Jim Travers said these were all down to his client’s relationship with alcohol. ‘When she abstains from alcohol, she abstains from offending,’ he said, adding that she had been sober for eight months now.

Deemster Graeme Cook said of her offending: ‘It just can’t go on. There comes a time when the court will lose patience with you and then you will be sentenced to custody.’

He sentenced her to 20 months’ jail, suspended for two years, with a two-year supervision order.