A 58-YEAR-OLD woman who stabbed a man in the neck with a broken wine glass has been convicted of grave and criminal assault.
Jurors in the Royal Court dismissed Kathryn Mary Mallet’s claim that she had acted in self-defence and unanimously found her guilty.
Mallet stabbed the man in a flat in St Helier on 8 March last year in what the prosecution said was an ‘unprovoked and terrifying attack’.
The victim, who had been drinking with Mallet in the hours before the stabbing, was left with a wound to his neck, as well as a cut to his lip and scratches.
She denied the charge, alleging that the victim had attacked her first and she had instinctively picked up the first implement she could find to defend herself.
Giving evidence, she said: ‘I didn’t stab him: I hit him. I didn’t realise what I’d hit him with.
‘I didn’t know what he was capable of. It was the only way I could protect myself.’
In his closing speech to the jury of six men and six women, Crown Advocate Mike Preston said: ‘Even if you do think the victim provoked her, her reaction was definitely not proportionate and definitely not reasonable.
‘The injury could have been fatal.’
Mallet was remanded in custody for sentencing on 18 September. Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae was presiding.
