Canterbury Crown Court, where the trial is taking place

by Paul Hooper

A mum of three told a jury of the moment she claimed her jealous husband stabbed her twice at her Westgate-on-Sea home.

Italian-born Samantha Peterson, 39, had been married for 11 years when her marriage began falling apart because of her husband's affair, she told Canterbury Crown Court.

Gary Peterson, 40, of Fort Hill, Margate, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder her in November last year.

Mrs Peterson told the jury how her husband became an alcoholic and, during rehab treatment, met and had an affair with a woman called Nicola.

She said: "He became aggressive and could be quite violent. He came back from detox and started drinking again. He was always drunk."

She claimed Peterson began making secret phone calls and began to suspect he was having an affair.

Mrs Peterson said at first her husband denied it but later admitted he had been cheating for three months.

By July last year, she began receiving texts from Nicola saying she was at her husband's flat and went round to confront them.

During a bust up she claimed her husband dragged her onto the street.

She said: "I saw this lady standing there behind him. She was shouting at me: 'What are you going to do now?'

"She was really winding me up and I heard my husband say: 'Nicola stop it.' Then I knew it was her.

"I was really upset. I did still love him but I found it hard to cope with him having an affair. But I still thought that maybe there was some hope we could still make things right.

"If he stopped drinking maybe things would be better. If he hadn't cheated on me, things would have been very different."

By November, she had begun a relationship with another man who, Peterson wrongly suspected, was a police officer, she told the jury.

On November 23, with her three children upstairs, Mrs Peterson was in the lounge at her home in Richborough Road when her husband arrived.

She said: "He told me that he wanted me back and that he couldn't live without me. Then he went into the kitchen and when I looked I could see he was going through the drawer where I keep my knives.

"At first I thought he was going to hurt himself. I walked towards him and then he turned around. He was holding a knife. There was a short struggle and he stabbed me. I didn't feel it going in. It didn't hurt. I didn't feel any pain.

"I said: 'What the f*** are you doing, Gary? Are you mad?'

"I then realised I had been stabbed because I felt wet. I pulled my shirt up and there was a lot of blood coming from a wound in my chest.

"I panicked and asked him to call an ambulance. He said to me: 'Oh, that's nothing.'

"The next thing I remember was lying on the floor. I was trying to get up but couldn't. I kept asking Gary to call an ambulance but he just knelt down next to me, bounced the knife off my lips, told me it was too late and stabbed me a second time."

Peterson is then alleged to have told her: "If I can't have you, then nobody can."

The knife broke during the attack and Peterson is alleged to have pulled out the blade with his fingers.

Mrs Peterson added: "I was in quite a bit of pain and I couldn't breathe very well. I must have passed out again before I remember hearing a bang on the door. I assumed it was the police and I shouted for them to knock down the door."

The trial continues.