A mother has claimed she did not mean to cause her boyfriend serious harm when she stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife.

Marcia Francis said she did not even realise she had harmed Pasquale Mustoe and turned around to carry on making coffee.

“My intention was never to harm him,” she told a jury. “I just wanted to scare him - just to show him up and leave me alone.”

Maidstone Crown Court has heard how Italian-born Mr Mustoe, 33, almost died from the wound inflicted in Francis’ flat in Westgate in September last year.

It happened after they argued about him cheating on her.

The blade penetrated his neck by six to nine inches, leaving him in need of blood transfusions and other emergency treatment at the QEQM Hospital in Margate.

The former chef suffered a stroke following the “catastrophic” injury which severed an artery.

Mr Mustoe told jurors he believed Francis, a business development manager for a fencing company, wanted to kill him.

She denies attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding with intent, but admits unlawful wounding.

Francis, 42, wept in the witness box as she told her version of what happened.

Two days before she went to bed while Mr Mustoe and friends were playing cards. After they went out at 3am she put his bag out of the window.

“I’d had enough,” she said. “He is a different person when he is on cocaine. It is always my fault.”

On Sunday September 29, she picked him up and took him to her flat in Ethelbert Terrace.

“He started as soon as he got in the car - just going at me,” she said. “He puts me down - quite nasty, just horrible nasty words.”

Mr Mustoe, she said, was accusing her of lying and not being at home the evening before.

“I went to the kitchen and picked up the kettle,” she continued. “I don’t know for the life of me what he was saying. I just grabbed at the knife block. I put my arm in the air and said: ‘Shut up’.

“I didn’t think I had touched him. I have let go of the knife. I turned around to make coffee. I saw blood squirting. I just wanted to scare him.

“He was quiet. He didn’t scream or anything. It is the quickest action ever. I heard him say ‘Marce, Marce’. When I turned around I could see blood spurting" - Marcia Francis

“I am not trying to lunge at him or hit him. I am not actually trying to stab him. I can’t believe I have. I didn’t know two knives had gone into him.

“He was quiet. He didn’t scream or anything. It is the quickest action ever. I heard him say ‘Marce, Marce’. When I turned around I could see blood spurting.

“I had to go to the car to get towels. I just knew I had to get him to hospital. He was able to get to the car under his own steam. I didn’t call an ambulance because I didn’t think it was serious.

“I didn’t think I had stabbed him still. I said: ‘I am so sorry. What have I done?’ He said: ‘Don’t worry. It will be all right.’”

John O’Higgins, defending, said: “You have pleaded guilty months ago to wounding. You have not denied you are responsible for Mr Mustoe’s terrible injuries. Did you intend to cause him serious harm?”

Francis replied: “Never.”

The trial continues.