A MAN who stabbed his wife in the stomach without warning after guzzling the equivalent of four bottles of wine was jailed for a year last week.

Susan O’Connor woke to the feeling of being punched in the stomach to find her husband of four years, Peter, kneeling on the bed above her holding an eight-inch kitchen knife.

Peter O’Connor, 48, told his shocked spouse of four years “It’s not sharp enough,” and raised the knife again.

Mrs O’Connor tried to grab the blade with her hands - and when she began screaming at her husband he went downstairs and calmly phoned the police.

Sheriff William Gilchrist said: “A custodial sentence is inevitable. You were clearly suffering from alcohol dependency at the time. That may be a reason but it is certainly not an excuse.” Stirling Sheriff Court was told the incident occurred at the couple’s home in Callander, Perthshire.

Prosecutor Olga Pasportnikov said: “Both the complainer and the accused admit that the relationship had been strained immediately prior to the incident due to financial difficulties.

“However, they rarely argued and both stated there had never been any form of violence before.

“During the evening of Saturday 22 June, 2013, Mrs O’Connor and the accused were both in the house together watching the television.

“Mrs O’Connor was drinking the contents of a bottle of wine and the accused was drinking wine from a three-litre box.

“At about 10 o’clock, Mrs O’Connor retired to bed leaving the accused alone in the living-room.

“At that time all was in order and the couple had not been arguing about anything. Susan O’Connor stated that they had enjoyed a pleasant evening together.

“At about 2.20am she was woken in her bed to the feeling of being punched in the abdomen.

“At this point she observed the accused on the bed above her holding a knife.” The court heard that after Mrs O’Connor screamed at him, O’Connor went downstairs and phoned police.

He told the operator he had stabbed his wife to the hand and stomach.

Officers rushed to the house in Waverley Drive, Callander, and found Mrs O’Connor holding her stomach, crying hysterically and bleeding.

Mrs Pasportnikov, said: “The accused was sitting calmly on the sofa, and had blood on both of his hands, both of which were placed on his lap.” Upstairs, police found bloodstained sheets and a black-handled chef’s knife with an eight-inch blade lying on the floor.

Mrs O’Connor was treated by paramedics and taken to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital at Larbert, Stirlinghshire, where doctors found a one-inch stab wound on her abdomen, cuts to her left index and middle finger, and an injury to left hand could have been defensive.

O’Connor, of Main Street, Callander, was initially charged with attempted murder and replied - “Well I don’t think I ever had the intent to murder her”.

He pleaded guilty to assault to danger of life.

Sheriff Gilchrist ordered O’Connor to be subject to six months’ supervision by social workers after the end of his jail term.