A ‘FEISTY' mother who stabbed her partner to death with a kitchen knife before she made off from the scene has been jailed for 10 years.

Cordelia Farrell put her hands over her face when she was jailed for the manslaughter of Wayne Coventry at Worcester Crown Court today. The jury had cleared her of murder yesterday but rejected her account that she acted in self-defence when she plunged the largest kitchen knife taken from the block through his chest, sinking it to a depth of 9cm and piercing his aorta.

The 38-year-old put her hands together over her face after she was told by Judge James Burbidge QC she could expect to serve at least two thirds of the sentence in prison after she stabbed her partner, father-of-three Wayne Coventry, in the chest with a kitchen knife at his brother’s Bromsgrove home.

She was described as both abuser and abused in what the judge called a toxic relationship. She herself had told police one of them would end up dead before she killed the 36-year-old

Judge James Burbidge QC said: "People close to you and him soon realised that it was a toxic relationship that was likely to end in some sort of catastrophe and that is exactly what it did.

"People who were concerned on both sides for both your well  being knew it was a turbulent relationship and sought to keep you apart. For yours as a relationship undoubtedly fuelled by alcohol and drugs was  violent and abusive."

The judge added: "You picked up the largest knife from the knife block. As the jury found you were not acting in defence of yourself. You then wielded that knife not intending to cause him serious bodily injury let alone to kill him but in a such a dangerous manner that harm even significant harm at such close quarters was likely to befall him. As indeed it did." 

Farrell suffers from emotionally unstable personality disorder. However, the judge did not find her dangerous in law. Two victim impact statements, one from Shannon Coventry and one from Mr Coventry’s mother, were read out before she was sentenced.

The stabbing happened in Humphrey Avenue on October 14 last year when she plunged the knife through his chest, sinking it to a depth of 9cm. She told a jury that Coventry, with whom she had a volatile relationship, had first placed a smaller knife to her back before she turned and stabbed him but her account that she acted in self-defence was rejected by the jury.

The stabbing followed an earlier attack by Farrell on the victim on September 11 last year during which she was said to have dragged him about by his testicles which she held in a 'vice-like grip'. She also bit his testicles and penis and stabbed him in the back with a piece of broken crockery. The judge imposed an 18 month concurrent sentence for the earlier assault.

Full report to follow.