A woman who stabbed her battered boyfriend with a key in a jealous rage has been jailed for 20 months.

Lorna Strachan, 43, had been drinking cans of Kestrel lager on the afternoon of July 30 after her boyfriend stayed at her house overnight.

Joseph Amoah tried to leave to avoid argument when Strachan became aggressive and began shouting at him, but she locked the door and grabbed a kitchen knife.

He managed to escape the house but Strachan had put a key between her fingers and stabbed at his shoulder and head several times.

He suffered minor lacerations to his head and shoulder and there was no serious lasting physical damage.

Strachan, of Radley Square, Dudlington Road, Upper Clapton who had been in a relationship with him for seven years, had already been jailed for assaulting him in March 2011.

Whilst in custody Strachan told a probation officer the pair could not bear to be apart from one another, but they could hurt each other if they continued drinking.

Sentencing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Judge John Lafferty said it was better for Strachan to spend time in custody as she would continue drinking if he gave her a suspended sentence.

“You allowed your jealousy to get the better of you,’ the judge said.

“You had a very important insight and you said to probation that this behaviour may well end up with you or Mr Amoah being killed.

“You are going to have to leave the relationship or you are going to have to learn to control your drinking.

“This will end up badly if you do not sort out your relationship and your life is worth more than that.”

Judge Lafferty sentenced Strachan, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, to 20 months in the hope she could give up alcohol.