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Aspiring surgeon spared jail for stabbing her boyfriend in drug-fuelled attack

The judge called her an 'extraordinarily able young lady'
Facebook - Lavinia Woodward

A young woman has been spared jail after an alcohol and drug-fueled attack on her boyfriend because it would have ‘too severe’ an impact on her aspirations to become a surgeon.

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Oxford University student, Lavinia Woodward, 24, punched and stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife during an argument last September while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, reports The Guardian. She then hurled a laptop, glass and jam jar at him.

But at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Ian Pringle said he would take an ‘exceptional’ course and defer Woodward’s sentence for four months.

‘It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinary able young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to would be a sentence which would be too severe,’ he said.

(Credit: Facebook – Lavinia Woodward)
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‘What you did will never, I know, leave you, but it was pretty awful, and normally it would attract a custodial sentence, whether it is immediate or suspended.’

Woodward’s lawyer argued that her dreams of becoming a surgeon were ‘almost impossible’ as her conviction would have to be disclosed and said she had also suffered domestic violence in a previous relationship.

Woodward was ordered to stay drug-free and will return to court for sentencing on September 25.

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