Woman jailed for killing partner with leg stab

Regan Martin and Wayne Sibley had been in a relationship for six years

A woman who accidentally killed her boyfriend by stabbing him in the leg during an argument has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Regan Martin was on the floor and was being "goaded" by Wayne Sibley when she grabbed a knife and "jabbed" at him, Derby Crown Court heard on Friday.

She was charged with murder but was found not guilty following a trial.

Martin, 48, was instead sentenced for manslaughter, which she had pleaded guilty to at a previous hearing.

'Bad luck'

Martin stabbed her boyfriend on 19 December, in the communal hallway of a building in Stamford Street in Ilkeston, where the couple had separate rooms.

Mr Sibling, 45, had thrown his girlfriend out of his room along with some of her belongings, and the knife she grabbed was in a block among those items.

Judge Shaun Smith said it was "tragically by bad luck" that the knife severed an artery in Mr Sibley's leg, which then "bled out".

"I do accept that you are truly remorseful," he told Martin.

"You loved Mr Sibley, I am told. I have no doubt about that, absolutely none."

He said that while there had been an intention to harm Mr Sibley, Martin had not intended to cause him grievous bodily harm.

If she had intended to kill him or cause him grievous bodily harm, she would have been guilty of murder.

Martin pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her boyfriend

The trial at Derby Crown Court heard the couple had been in a relationship for six years.

Both of them were drug users, but Martin had been clean of drugs for six weeks leading up to the killing.

However, on the day of the killing, both of them were under the influence of heroin, crack cocaine and cider.

The stabbing in the hallway was captured by a security camera inside the building, and jurors saw footage of blood spurting from Mr Sibley's leg.

'Miss him every day'

Another resident called the emergency services, and police, paramedics and a doctor all tried to help Mr Sibley.

A tourniquet was applied to stem the blood flow, but he was pronounced dead at 18:03 GMT, just over an hour after emergency services were called.

Taya Sibley, one of Mr Sibley's daughters, read a victim personal statement to the court.

She cried as she read it, saying to Martin: "I still don't understand why you have taken my dad from me, and I will miss him every single day."

Judge Smith said the sentence would have been 10 years if Martin had been found guilty of manslaughter following a trial.

However, he reduced her sentence by a quarter due to her guilty plea.

He told her she will serve two-thirds of her sentence in prison before she can be released on licence.

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