Kendal farm labourer ordered to pay compensation to stabbed girlfriend (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal farm labourer ordered to pay compensation to stabbed girlfriend

9:37am Tuesday 18th September 2012 in News

A DRUNKEN man stabbed his “bossy” girlfriend with a carving knife because he did not like the way she was constantly telling him what to do, a court has heard.

Alison Ediss, 20, suffered a wound to her shoulder when 26-year-old Kirk Satterthwaite hit her with the knife in the kitchen of her home in Kirkby Stephen on the evening of July 14.

Satterthwaite, who has recently been living with relatives in Hallgarth Circle, Kendal, pleaded guilty to causing her actual bodily harm, but claimed he did it by accident when recklessly waving the knife around while trying to split a packet of burgers.

But after hearing evidence at Carlisle Crown Court a judge rejected that explanation, saying that the type of injury Ms Ediss received could only have been caused by Satterthwaite jabbing the knife at her.

Satterthwaite was ordered to pay Alison Ediss £400 compensation, put under 12 months’ probation supervision and given an electronically monitored curfew to keep him indoors at his parents’ home in Redmayne Road, Kirkby Stephen, from 9pm to 6am every night for the next three months.

He was also banned indefinitely from having any contact with his former girlfriend.

The court heard that on the day of the incident Satterthwaite had drunk at least 15 pints of beer and on his own admission was “really, really drunk”.

Once back at Ms Ediss’s home Satterthwaite became agitated, and accused Ms Ediss of “winding him up”.

She told the court he was waving the knife around while he spoke to her, though she admitted she did not feel in any way threatened.

When she turned to leave the kitchen he stabbed her in the back of the shoulder, she said.

Asked if she thought the blow was deliberate, she replied: “I don’t know if it was or it wasn’t, to be honest.”

Satterthwaite said he was angry with Ms Ediss because she had been “bossing me around all day”.

“It was like her being my Mum,” he said.

But he said he had not intended to hurt her.

“I was really really drunk and my hands were all over the place,” he said. “It happened so fast.”

After hearing the evidence the judge, Recorder Simon Medland QC, said that, while he accepted that Satterthwaite had not meant to injure Ms Ediss, he was certain he had pushed the knife “very close” to her.

“It was not simply waved around – otherwise there would have been a very different kind of injury,” he said.

In mitigation, defence advocate Chris Toms said he accepted that Satterthwaite – a former grammar school boy “with plenty of ability” – had been just “drifting around”.

He told the judge: “I don’t think he has made the best of the opportunities life has given him.”

The judge agreed and told Satterthwaite, who works as a farm labourer: “You are not doing anything with your life. You are drifting about, taking drugs and drinking yourself into the most disgusting state.”