A WOMAN who stabbed her “on-off” partner has walked free from court after a judge how her life had been blighted by domestic abuse.
Crystal Banyard was being attacked by her boyfriend when she knifed him in the stomach at her home in Darlington, leaving him with a puncture wound to his liver.
The man needed surgery and developed an infection, and spent six days in hospital, Teesside Crown Court was told.
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Since the incident last May, he says has has had to change his everyday life, cannot eat certain food or walk his dog, and moved in with his parents for support.
Banyard pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding only on the day she was due to stand trial, and her victim said: “I am angry she has dragged out the process as long as she could. All she needed to do was tell the truth.”
The 29-year-old was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a restraining order to keep her away from her former partner.
Prosecutor Rachel Masters said the couple had been in a “turbulent, on-off relationship” for a number of years before the incident in Estoril Road South.
She said the man initially had “an extremely limited recollection” of what happened - remembering only being at the house and having a row before waking in hospital in pain.
A neighbour who passed the open front door told police that she saw Banyard in the hallway being gripped around the chest and shouting “get off” before she fled with a knife and said: “I’ve stabbed him.”
When police arrived, an officer with a bodycam filmed the mother-of-one and the footage - played to the judge - showed her with an eye injury and blood down her left side.
Dan Cordey, mitigating, told the court that Banyard accepted “excessive self-defence” and “The assault was against a background of previous domestic violence.
“Their four-and-a-half-year relationship had been characterised by domestic violence. This was the culmination of years of abuse.
“This was a relationship which finished in March 2017. On May 9, it is accepted it was the complainant who came around uninvited. He didn’t leave when he was requested to do so.
“The defendant was perfectly entitled to defend herself from the assault upon her by the complainant at the time, but by using a knife she went beyond what was reasonable.”
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, heard that Banyard had earlier violent relationships, and from the age of 15 spent time with older men and became pregnant.
He said it was “remarkable” that she has no more than two previous convictions - both as a teenager - because of her “tragic and unhappy life thus far”.
The judge said there had been a high degree of provocation and “a complete and utter lack of premeditation”, but said Banyard has left her victim with long-term effects.
He said: “You must understand even though you were the subject of abuse yourself, nothing justifies the use of a weapon, and nothing justifies the use of a knife.”