A Dundee woman who stabbed her boyfriend as he tidied their flat has avoided jail.
Anna Byrne had been out for dinner with then partner Elliot Stewart, her father and stepmother in the city centre.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the couple later argued about Byrne’s excessive drinking and Mr Stewart left Byrne at home for two hours to cool down.
When he returned at 1am he began to tidy up as he tried to placate her anger.
Depute fiscal Charmaine Gilmartin told the court: “As he picked up a book on the floor he felt a sharp pain and saw her holding a steak knife with a serrated edge.
“He pushed her and kicked her away.
“The accused panicked and went to phone an ambulance, but the complainer asked her not to as he didn’t want her getting in trouble.
“He then asked her to leave and called an ambulance himself.”
Byrne also spoke to the ambulance control centre and told them she had “slit him a wee bit”.
Police arrived to find blood on the floor in the hall and living room.
Byrne was detained for assault but she was so drunk that solicitor access procedures could not be carried out.
The court heard Mr Stewart needed eight stitches to an 8cm wound to his abdomen.
Byrne, 24, admitted assaulting him on March 20 last year.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael imposed a community payback order with one year’s supervision and 140 hours of unpaid work but said Byrne could have been going to jail.
He said: “This is a serious matter and is in the realms of a custodial sentence.”
