A MOTHER-OF-ONE walked into the home of her former partner, dressed in pink pyjamas, and stabbed him in the shoulder as he lay fast asleep in bed, a court heard.

Emily Jane Whittaker, 35, after telling a witness, “I told you how serious I was being”, went to run a bath, Burnley Crown Court was told.

And when police officers went to arrest her in the bath, for knifing ex-lover Francis Fleming, she told them: “You what? I am really confused.

“I haven’t done anything. I am just having a bath.”

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said the defendant and Mr Fleming had been in a relationship and they had a young daughter together.

But the couple, each said to have drinking problems, had been apart for 12 months when the stabbing occurred, the court was told.

She had been repeatedly warned about turning up at Mr Fleming’s mother’s home in Coal Clough Lane, without permission or warning, and making herself at home, Mr Parker said.

He told the court Mr Fleming had been drinking white wine and cider with his friend Danny Endicott on November 30. He had gone to bed to “sleep off his hangover”.

The court heard Mr Endicott watched, a short time later, as Whittaker let herself into the house, called him a dropout and walked straight upstairs.

Mr Parker said Mr Fleming was asleep face down on his bed when Whittaker stabbed him close to his right shoulder blade.

Whittaker, of Fenwick Street, Burnley, admitted to unlawfully wounding Mr Fleming, She was given a two year prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a 60-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a six-month alcohol treatment order.

Clare Ashcroft, defending, said: “Fortunately the injury was not serious in the context of such offences.

She told the court Whittaker had mental health problems, exacerbated by drink, and had not taken her medication on the day of the stabbing.

Passing sentence, Judge Ian Leeming QC said the public and the defendant would be best served by Whittaker securing help for her drinking problem.

The judge also imposed a five-year restraining order, to keep Whittaker away from Fleming, except for child-care arrangements.