A woman who stabbed her former lover after he ended their 'illicit' affair by text has been sentenced to three years' probation.
Joanne McMaster was told that time period was needed for her to undergo an extensive programme to deal with drug and alcohol addictions and her underlying emotional problems.
Judge Patricia Smyth told the 37-year-old, from Abetta Parade in east Belfast, that while a prison term was "richly deserved", the "protection of the public is always at the forefront of the courts' mind" and for this "primary reason rather than your benefit" she was prepared to impose the probation term.
The Crown Court judge said it was a "unique" case, arising from her inability to manage her extensive emotional problems for which the probation service could provide a therapeutic package to help resolve them.
McMaster had been having an 'illicit' relationship with a married man, which she thought would be made public following the death of his sick wife.
However, the court heard "he had other ideas", texting her to say the affair was over.
She went to his home in a "highly intoxicated state" on April 25 last year armed with a knife and stabbed him.
The attack may have gone unreported only for police later finding McMaster in a nearby street with her forehead, face and arm splattered with blood.
She was trying to damage tyres to a van, and in her drunken condition admitted stabbing the man, telling police: "I went round to his house and cut him with a knife."
The victim later indicated he did not want her prosecuted.
Defence barrister Terry McDonald said when McMaster's ex-partner ended their relationship, she underwent "intense feelings of love and betrayal" and "responded emotionally" while "disinhibited by alcohol and drugs".
He said she "requires intensive treatment... to ensure an episode like this does not happen again."
