Stephanie Roberts has avoided jail for a shocking knife attack on her ‘controlling’ boyfriend Ravi Benitez
A woman who stabbed her boyfriend in the face after taking drugs and drinking heavily has avoided jail after her lawyers insisted she is ‘charming’.
Stephanie Roberts, 20, slashed at her lover Ravi Benitez, 19, when she visited him at Warwick University on November 24 last year.
Mr Benitez suffered slash wounds before a security guard managed to wrestle the seven-inch knife from Roberts’ hands.
She was spared jail at Warwick Crown Court after the judge was told she is ‘an intelligent young woman of integrity and charm’.
The court was told Roberts, of South Kensington, London, took anti-psychotic drug Xanax before going out drinking with Mr Benitez and his friends.
When they returned to Mr Benitez’s flat at the university, which he shared with other students, Roberts attacked him.
The court heard Roberts pointed the knife at Mr Benitez before telling him: ‘I’d rather kill the person who’s f****ed me up the most – you. I know perfectly well what I’m doing.’
She then called her father, telling him: ‘You need to get me before I kill him, you need to get me right now. You come here right now, or it’s the end.’
Despite hearing how she said she’d kill Mr Benitez, Roberts’ lawyer insisted she is ‘charming’
But Adam Western, defending, said of Roberts: ‘She had been subject to controlling behaviour and isolated from her friends.
‘She says he manipulated her entirely. She is described as an intelligent young woman of integrity and charm.’
After admitting wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, Roberts received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.
She was also given a rehabilitation activity and a restraining order banning her from having any contact with Mr Benitez.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: ‘It was by all accounts a pretty toxic relationship which involved him providing [her] with Xanax on a regular basis.’
Addressing Roberts, she added: ‘On this evening, on two separate occasions, you lunged at him with the knife.
The court was told Roberts, of South Kensington, London, (her home is pictured) took anti-psychotic drug Xanax before going out drinking with Mr Benitez and his friends
‘The first occasion is what caused the damage, and there are two slashes to his face and to his finger when he put his hand up to defend himself.’
The judge added: ‘It was a very, very dangerous way to behave, because if you take out a knife when you are distressed and angry and have had a lot to drink, you can cause very serious injuries indeed.
‘Both he and you are very fortunate you did not do so on this occasion.
‘But I have read a great deal about you, and both the prosecution and the defence accept I must sentence you according to your basis of plea which makes clear you had for some time been the victim of a mentally abusive relationship.
‘Your circumstances had pushed you to the limit, and the combination of drink and drugs that had been supplied to you by him that night were sufficient to push you over the edge.’
The attack happened when Roberts went to visit her boyfriend at Warwick University