Oxford student surgeon who stabbed Tinder boyfriend could avoid prison thanks to ‘extraordinary’ talent
Judge says it would be 'too severe' to lock up Lavinia Woodward, 24, after vicious attack on ex
AN Oxford student who knifed her lover in a drug and drink-fuelled frenzy may avoid jail — after a judge hinted she is too clever for prison.
Aspiring heart surgeon Lavinia Woodward, 24, stabbed Thomas Fairclough in the leg with a breadknife and hurled a laptop, glass and jam jar at him.
But Judge Ian Pringle suggested he will waive the usual prison term when he sentences her in case it damages her career.
He said: "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.
"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, who admitted a charge of unlawful wounding at Oxford Crown Court, flew to Barbados after the hearing.
She has published articles in medical journals and will be returning to Oxford’s historic Christ Church college in the next academic year.
A friend said: “They see her as someone worth the risk of having around. She might win a Nobel Prize, she is that intelligent.”
Prosecutor Cathy Olliver said Woodward met her ex, a Cambridge PhD student, on Tinder.
She said on September 30, the night of the attack, they rowed and Woodward's behaviour behaviour "deteriorated".
When Fairclough threatened to contact Woodward’s mum on Skype she punched him in the face before picking up a bread knife and stabbing him in the leg.
Defending, James Sturman QC said his client's dreams of becoming a surgeon were "almost impossible" as her conviction would have to disclosed.
The court heard Woodward had a "very troubled life," battling addiction and suffering abuse by another ex.
Judge Pringle will sentence her on September 25 but she has been slapped with a restraining order and told to stay drug-free and not to re-offend.
Mark Brooks, of the ManKind Initiative which supports male domestic violence victims, said: “The judge’s comments are unacceptable. This is domestic abuse against a man and the sympathy should be for him.”
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