Lavinia Woodward pictured arriving at Oxford Crown Court in September 2017 where she was handed a suspended sentence
An Oxford University student who was ‘too bright’ to be jailed despite stabbing her Tinder date with a bread knife has quit her degree early.
Lavinia Woodward, 26, attacked her then partner she met on the dating app after drinking at her university accommodation at Christ Church college.
She was given a 10 month prison term suspended for 18 months at Oxford Crown Court after admitting unlawful wounding of lover Thomas Fairclough.
She later lost an appeal against her sentence, and the university said she would face a disciplinary panel if she decided to return.
After suspending her studies, she could have returned in September, but it emerged today that she has now formally withdrawn from the university.
A spokesman for the university confirmed to MailOnline that Woodward had withdrawn from her college, Christ Church.
In the months after her sentencing she found love again with the son of a Russian billionaire. Reports said she has been ‘lying low’ in recent months, but it is unclear where she is living and how she has been spending her time.
When she was spared jail in September 2017, judge Ian Pringle was slammed for being too lenient.
Critics said the ruling demonstrated class bias in the legal process, and led to claims she was let off because the judge thought being locked up could harm her career as a heart surgeon.
Woodward (pictured) lost an appeal against her sentence, and the university said she would face a disciplinary panel if she decided to return. It emerged today that she has now formally withdrawn from the university
Despite this she appealed, asking for a fine or a conditional discharge – a punishment not classed as a conviction unless she breaks the law again.
In her trial her lawyers said her dreams of becoming a surgeon were now ‘almost impossible’ as her conviction would have to be disclosed.
Woodward had also said had led a ‘troubled life’ included struggles with drug addiction and an abusive ex-boyfriends.
But three judges in the Court of Appeal threw the case out saying in her initial sentence the judge had already taken an ‘exceptional course’ in giving her the ‘compassionate’ suspended sentence.
The stabbing took place in December 2016 when Woodward’s partner, a Cambridge University student, visited her in Oxford.
In March last year the MailOnline revealed she found love again with the son of a Russian billionaire. She started dating 21-year-old businessman Philip Kagalovsky (pictured with Woodward) whose father Konstantin counts Roman Abramovich as one of his closest friends
He realised she had been drinking and when Woodward discovered he had contacted her mother, she became ‘extremely angry’ and attacked him with a bread knife.
She also hurled a laptop, a glass and a jam jar at him during the violent clash at her accommodation at Christ Church.
Woodward challenged her sentence at the Court of Appeal in June last year.
Her lawyers argued the ‘exceptional’ circumstances of her case – including her mental health difficulties – meant she could have been given a conditional discharge or a fine.
Jim Sturman QC said the suspended sentence has affected her ability to find work.
Woodard (left, outside court, and right) challenged her sentence at the Court of Appeal in June last year saying she shuld have been given a conditional discharge or a fine. She lost her appeal
He told the court at the time: ‘I appreciate it would be an exceptional course, but she is an exceptional candidate.’
Mr Sturman told the court Woodward had accepted she will never fulfill her ambition of becoming a heart surgeon, but hoped to pursue a career in medical research.
A character reference from her former professor at Oxford said she was the most talented undergraduate who had been in his laboratory over the past 25 years.
The court heard she had made an observation whilst studying which led to the founding of a research department at the university.
Woodward was educated at The British School of Milan, formerly known as The Sir James Henderson School, where fees can top £16,000 a year and which is close to her mother’s £1 million villa in the Italian village of Sirtori.
She left for Oxford in 2010 and came top in the pre-clinical tests all Oxford medical students take at the end of their third year.
Her name appears on a number of papers in prestigious academic journals, where she is credited with contributing to research.
Her ambition, she made it known at college, was to cure heart disease.
In March last year the MailOnline revealed she found love again with the son of a Russian billionaire.
She started dating 21-year-old businessman Philip Kagalovsky, whose father Konstantin counts Roman Abramovich as one of his closest friends.
The couple even moved in together in a flat south Kensington, west London.