Ex-lover asks for attacker to walk free
A woman who slashed the neck of her ex-lover has been saved from immediate jail by him.
Kerry Wignall walked free from Wolverhampton Crown Court after Trevor Gilbert pleaded for her not to be locked up.
The pair – who have now split up – had been in a violent relationship for nine months when she hit him with a picture frame during a drunken row at the Wednesbury home they shared, revealed Mr Philip Brunt, prosecuting.
The frame did not break on impact but gouged a cut below his chin that needed 17 stitches.
The lawyer said: "They had both been drinking when there was a violent confrontation during which she struck him with a picture frame causing very significant injury to his neck. It had been a difficult relationship during which she had called police about his alleged violent conduct on four occasions."
Mr Andrew Mitchinson, defending, maintained: "She was seized around the throat and grabbed the first thing that came to hand." Mr Gilbert said in a statement read to the court: "She has had a troubled past and I do not want her to go to prison."
Wignall, 40, from Kent Road, Wednesbury, pleaded guilty to wounding on July 26, 2014, and was told by Judge James Burbidge QC: "You used the photograph frame in the heat of the moment and caused a significant laceration to the neck of your former partner. You are lucky you did not cut an artery in his neck.
"But he says he does not want you to go to prison. This may be because he is a very charitable and decent individual but it may also be because he feels some degree of responsibility for what happened."
Wignall received a 12-month jail term suspended for 18 months with 40 hours unpaid work.
