Cardiff: Woman stabs ex-boyfriend in the chest after accusing him of messaging other women

A woman stabbed her ex-boyfriend and hit him over the head with a glass bottle and an ashtray after accusing him of messaging other women, a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Leah Hanlon, 23, attacked her ex-boyfriend at her home in Cathays, Cardiff in November last year.

She and the man had been separated for almost two months, but she invited him to her house before going on to attack him and leave him with a "life threatening" injury.

The court heard that Hanlon had become jealous after thinking he was messaging other women and he showed her his phone in response.

Hanlon went on to hit him over the head with a glass bottle of Smirnoff Ice and hit him again with an ashtray, with both breaking on impact.

Prosecutor David Pinnell said the defendant went downstairs to a neighbour's flat and was followed by the man – who smashed one of the neighbour's windows. 

The barrister said: "As he went to leave, the defendant followed him and stabbed him just below the armpit using a knife."

The victim suffered "life threatening compression" to the heart, windpipe and major blood vessels.The wound was one inch in length under the right arm pit and punctured the chest cavity, causing the man to suffer a collapsed lung.

He was taken to hospital where his chest was drained to allow for the lung to be reinflated, and went on to make a full recovery.

Hanlon, of Cwrt Sant Mihangel, Whitchurch Road, was arrested and taken to custody but when told by officers why she had been arrested, she said: "I don't know what you're on about."

She later pleaded guilty to a section 20 wounding.

The court heard she had on previous conviction for assaulting an emergency worker.In mitigation, James Evans had said his client did not accept that her relationship with the man had ended and she has no intentions of getting back in touch with him.

He said the defendant had a "difficult family background" and became estranged from her parents at the age of 14, but had found the death of her mother hard.

She was described as being "mortified" by what she had done.

Sentencing, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said the defendant could have "easily killed" her ex.

He added: "Anyone who takes a knife to cause really serious injury to another person is a too serious to be dealt with by anything other than an immediate custodial sentence."Hanlon wept and told the court, "I just want to say I'm sorry."

She asked the judge to take her remorse into account, but Judge Jenkins told her he had no option but to send her to prison.

She was sentenced to a total of 15 months imprisonment.