A WOMAN accused of murdering her partner has admitted she intended to stab him.

Sharon Hodges, aged 41, said Philip Gibbs slashed her wrists before goading her into stabbing him after she picked up a knife in self-defence. She denies murder.

She told Bristol Crown Court: “I did it because I was in fear of my life. I thought he had snapped and gone mad.”

Mr Gibbs, aged 58, suffered a stab following a row in the early hours of November 19 at their home in Sand Bay Caravan Park in Kewstoke.

Hodges told the court Mr Gibbs attacked her while she was on the phone to a man she had kissed earlier in the evening.

She said a ‘raging’ Mr Gibbs picked up a knife and slashed her wrist. and second blow struck the hand she used to shield her face.

On her decision to pick up a knife, she said: “I thought he was going to jump back and think ‘she will stab me’. I wasn’t intending to stab him.

“I didn’t intend for one minute to kill him or cause serious harm. I didn’t want him dead. I just wanted him to back off.”

But minutes after she admitted, during cross-examination this week, that she did intend to stab her partner.

She said: “I intended, when he was coming towards me, to have some contact so that it would end what was going on.

“I did intend to make contact because he was still coming towards me.”

The jury is currently considering its verdict.

For more details of the trial see tomorrow’s (Thurs) Mercury.