Jealous mother who attacked lover with a knife narrowly avoidsprison sentence.

Mar 10 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A JEALOUS mother who attacked her lover with a knife after finding texts from another woman on his phone narrowly avoided a prison sentence.

Gary Stewart needed stitches to wounds on his shoulder and hip after Charlene Henderson stabbed him with a five-inch kitchen knife she kept in her bedside cabinet.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that Henderson, who has a previous conviction for domestic assault, had been in her Blackridge home when her partner came home at 6.30pm on June 19.

After having a drink together Henderson, 24, checked her lover’s phone and found he had been receiving text messages from a female.

“An argument ensued and the accused slapped him on the head. She retrieved a kitchen knife from a bedside drawer and attempted to strike him with it. She managed to hit him on the head with the knife. It was a glancing blow,” senior fiscal depute John Barclay said.

“She hit him on the shoulder and the left hip and he was bleeding from his injuries.”

Her victim needed stitches to his shoulder and hip injuries.

Henderson, formerly of Hillside Drive, Blackridge, pled guilty to repeatedly striking her partner on the head and body with a knife all to his injury.

The court heard that at the time of the offence mother-of-one Henderson had been on bail for domestic assault and possession of a knife.

Her solicitor, Ufran Dar, told the court his client was under no illusions as to the gravity of the offence.

“She knows a custodial sentence is very much a reality,” Mr Dar added. “She has taken the initiative in removing herself from this fairly volatile relationship by relocating to East Yorkshire.

“She is now residing with a new partner who appears to be a calming influence.”

Placing Henderson on probation for two years and tagging her for six months Sheriff Donald Muirhead said: “Day in and day out there are headlines about stabbings. In light of this the general approach of the court has to be that people who carry knives and particularly people who use them are almost certainly likely to be locked up.

“But we do have to judge individual cases and occasionally there are circumstances which might lead to a different result. You are someone with what I would call a disruptive upbringing but that is no different to the vast majority of people who appear in front of the court.

“What is a little more unusual is that your course of criminal conduct only started in July 2009 when you were 22 and it seems to be linked in some way to a relationship which seems to be finished.

“You were placed on probation for the earlier offence and you have apparently coped well and you appear to be beginning to recognise that you should not behave in the way that you did and that it was entirely the wrong thing to do.

“I often fall on the side of sending a message to the community that you must not use knives but it seems in your case an exception can be made.”