A drunken mum-of-four who plunged a knife into the neck of her husband during a shopping trip bust-up has kept her freedom.

Shona Reese, 29, stabbed hubby Colin and then called 999 before getting a taxi to her mum’s home with her children aged between two and 13.

The cabbie – who drove them from Newman Road, Aylesham, to Sandwich – overheard her telling the youngsters: “I am sorry, I don’t know why I did it."

In the back of the taxi she continued: "I love him...I really love him. I don’t want him to die. I hope the ambulance gets there soon.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I stabbed him in the neck because he can’t keep beating me up and calling me a slag.”

“I didn’t mean to do it. I stabbed him in the neck because he can’t keep beating me up and calling me a slag” - Shona Reese

Reese had originally been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and then charged with wounding with intent.

She denied that but admitted the lesser charge of unlawful wounding.

Prosecutor Tom Dunn told Canterbury Crown Court that Mr Reese needed treatment at the William Harvey Hospital for a 10mm wound.

But he then refused to co-operate with the investigation and prosecution and later gave an account of the attack which was "clearly at odds with what happened".

The police had been alerted by ambulance services who had been called to a house in Newman Road in October last year.

Mr Reese was discovered bleeding profusely from the neck wound and taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

Police traced the taxi driver who had taken Reese from the Aylesham home to Sandwood Road, Sandwich, where she now lives with her mother.

Mr Dunn said that what she told the cabbie “amounted to a confession” and she was arrested but told officers:

“I called the ambulance. I lost it and grabbed something but how can it be attempted murder?

“If I had wanted to kill him... I would have let him bleed out.”

The prosecutor said the couple had been shopping in Canterbury but had gone into a pub for a drink where Reese had downed three pints of strong cider.

He said that she has previous convictions for 15 offences including assault, battery, assaulting a police officer, criminal damage and arson.

Mr Dunn said there had been a history of violence and abuse between the couple with many accusations being made by Reese against her husband.

Phil Rowley, defending, said the Reese's marriage had been a “dysfunctional relationship characterised by violence on the defendant.”

He said at the time of the attack the couple were living apart but had been shopping together and the couple had gone drinking.

Mr Rowley added that on the way home Mr Reese’s demeanour changed and he became “argumentative, belligerent and unpleasant” and the couple began arguing.

Reese later said the attack was “excessive self-defence” after claiming her husband made a move towards her.

The judge, Recorder John Bate-Williams, suspended an eight-month jail sentence for two years.

He told her she had acted “impulsively” in grabbing the kitchen knife “no doubt your thinking being clouded by drink.”

Stories you might have missed

Brothers admit handling former Desert Rat's stolen war medals

More than 100 asylum seekers moved to Kent hotel

Exact cause of baby's death 'may never be known'

Venomous hobo spider found in Kent