Woman stabbed boyfriend on the arm

Samantha Barton received a five month sentence suspended for two years.

Barton, of Bonds Street, pleaded guilty to wounding her boyfriend on November 29, last year.

Derry Magistrate’s Court heard the injured party was stabbed in the upper arm and sustained a one inch wound which required three stitches.

When police arrived at the scene, Barton told the officers she had tried to stab her boyfriend in the chest. The man did not make a statement of complaint to police.

The court heard that two reports were compiled on the defendant and in one of these, she stated she was still in a relationship with the injured party.

She also claimed they were ‘deeply in love’ and the injured party was ‘the one’.

However, in the second report Barton said she has a different boyfriend, with whom she was ‘very happy’.

This revelation caused District Judge Barney McElholm to tell the court the ‘path of true love never runs smoothly’.

Defence counsel Stephen Chapman said his client didn’t recall why she stabbed her boyfriend or the preamble to the incident.

The barrister told the court if the 21-year-old had not reported the incident to police ‘nobody would have ever known what happened between these two’.

Suspending the sentence, District Judge McElholm said it was a ‘serious matter’.