Top student who stabbed boyfriend loses appeal
A PROMISING Oxford University medical student who avoided jail after stabbing her boyfriend with a bread knife has lost an appeal against her suspended sentence.
Lavinia Woodward attacked her then-partner after drinking at her university accommodation at Christ Church college.
The 25-year-old was given a 10-month prison term suspended for 18 months at Oxford Crown Court last September after admitting unlawful wounding.
Woodward challenged her sentence at the Court of Appeal. Her lawyers argued the “exceptional” circumstances of her case — including mental health issues — meant she could have been given a conditional discharge or a fine.
Jim Sturman QC said the suspended sentence has affected her ability to find work, telling the court: “I appreciate it would be an exceptional course, but she is an exceptional candidate.”
Rejecting her appeal, Judge Johannah Cutts said the Crown Court judge took an exceptional course by suspending her jail term and his sentence was “constructive and compassionate”.
Sitting with Lord Justice Si- mon and Mr Justice Goose, she said: “We accept that she had powerful mitigation. This nonetheless remained a serious offence which, in our view, merited a custodial element to the sentence.
“It was by reason of the powerful mitigation that the judge was able to take an exceptional course and suspend the custodial term. It was a constructive and compassionate sentence.”
The stabbing happened in December 2016 when Woodward’s partner, a Cambridge University student, visited her in Oxford.
He realised she’d been drinking and when Woodward discovered he’d contacted her mother, she became “extremely angry” and attacked him with a bread knife. He sustained cuts to his leg and fingers in the attack.
Mr Sturman told the court Woodward has undergone voluntary drug tests and has been clean for the past 18 months.
He also said she has accepted she will never fulfil her ambition of becoming a heart surgeon, but hopes to pursue a career in medical research.The court heard she had made an observation whilst studying which led to the founding of a research department at the university.