Student loses plea to overturn sentence
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 in September last year after admitting unlawful wounding.
She had been due to be sentenced earlier but a judge gave her four months to prove herself and stay out of trouble.
Woodward challenged her sentence at the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Her lawyers argued the “exceptional” circumstances of her case – including her mental health difficulties – 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.
But, rejecting her appeal, Judge Johannah Cutts said the Crown Court judge had taken an exceptional course by suspending her jail term and his sentence was “constructive and compassionate”.
Sitting with Lord Justice Simon 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.”
The stabbing happened in December 2016 when Woodward’s partner, a Cambridge University student, visited her in Oxford.
He realised she had been drinking and when Woodward discovered he had contacted her mother, she became “extremely angry” and attacked him with a bread knife. He sustained cuts. Mr Sturman told the court Woodward has undergone voluntary drug tests and has been clean for the past 18 months.