COUPLE'S HOLIDAY AT SILLOTH ENDED WITH WOMAN STABBING HER PARTNER
A WOMAN who stabbed her partner while they were staying at a Silloth holiday park was guilty of using an “excess of self-defence,” a court heard.Carlisle Crown Court heard that Kiera Brennan, 23, stabbed the man in his leg because he had punched her.
At the time on October 12, the court heard, she was preparing vegetables and used excessive violence as she responded to being punched.
As a result of the incident, Brennan has now been recalled to complete an earlier four-year jail term she was given for intentionally wounding another man.
Brennan admitted an actual bodily harm assault.
Marion Weir, defending, said the defendant, formerly of Albert Street, Chilton, County Durham, had endured a difficult upbringing when as a child she was exposed to domestic violence.
She had made a pact with herself to not be part of that problem during her life, she said.
“She wants to break the cycle,” said Miss Weir.
“There are underlying issues which need to be dealt with.” At the time of the stabbing, Brennan was under the influence of substances and she herself had been assaulted, said the barrister.
Judge Michael Fanning said the decision to charge the defendant with an assault causing actual bodily harm rather than wounding meant she could not in law be classified as a dangerous offender.
It also means that there is no way in which the judge could “artificially” increase her sentence so that it would extend her stay in jail.
Judge Fanning imposed a five-month jail term but this runs alongside her present prison recall term, which does not expire until November of next year.
The judge noted that the sentence she has now resumed serving was also a crime committed in a domestic context.
Referring to the stabbing in Silloth, Judge Fanning added: "There's a risk of really serious harm from stabbing in to the leg.
Many people die when stabbed in the leg."
