A FAMILY today hit out after a mother-of-five who claimed to be the victim of a decade of domestic violence was jailed for two-and-a-half years for stabbing her husband to death.

Dawn Bracewell, 37, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her husband Gary, 34, who was found with serious stab wounds to his chest on June 19 last year.

Mr Bracewell was found slumped on the settee at the family home in Brown Street East, Colne after he was attacked with a kitchen knife.

She was originally charged with his murder before admitting a manslaughter charge at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

Bracewell's family said after the hearing that they were not happy with the sentence.

Her mother, Pat Wilding, said: "I don't think she should have been sent to prison after all the violence she has had to suffer.

"She should have had a suspended sentence. I have seen her children cowering in the corner as she has been beaten. If it was all her fault why did he say those things to the police about it being his fault.

"We've got to go and start sorting things out now for her children.

"She will lose her house now as well because the council won't hold on to it for her.

"And how do you go and tell children that their mum's not coming home?"

Mark Lamberty, prosecuting, told the court the couple had been arguing in a pub earlier in the night and after Mr Bracewell left the premises, she had been heard to say: "I am going to stab him. I can't take any more black eyes and beatings. I have had ten years of this."

During their argument in the pub other people saw Mr Bracewell being confronted by his wife, who picked up a lager glass and held it in front of him as he urged her to hit him.

Mr Bracewell arrived home between 11.15 and 11.30pm.

His daughters were in at the time and they later told the police how he had been behaving in a strange way, sitting in the down stairs room watching television with the lights off -- something he last did when his father died.

Bracewell arrived home at 11.40pm and she said she saw him sitting in the chair and he demanded food from her.

She said a kitchen knife was out, which she thought the children must have been playing with, and her husband taunted her and challenged her to use the knife on him.

After stabbing her husband, Bracewell telephoned for an ambulance saying she had stabbed her husband three times and when they arrived the knife was still in her hand.

Mr Lamberty told the court Mr Bracewell suffered three wounds to the chest area and one just under the chin, with a four centimetre deep wound to the left side of his chest which punctured a major blood vessel.

Mr Lamberty said that when the police arrived she said to them: "I have done it. He's been beating me up. He deserved it. Ten years he has been hitting me".

She later said she did not mean to kill him, that she loved him but just wanted the beatings to stop.

The judge was told that on the way to hospital Mr Bracewell had said he did not want anything to happen to his wife and said: " It's my fault'.

Tony Cross, defending, said: "My client is deeply remorseful about her husband's death.

" There were occasions when she was treated incredibly violently. She gave him chance after chance and went back to him time and time again."

The judge, Mr Justice Astill, gave Bracewell credit for her guilty plea and said he acknowledged the violence she had suffered during her life.

But he said: "It is clear to me that despite the fact you have been subjected to violence, you have not been wholly dominated or a subservient woman. Witnesses have spoken of your ability to threaten violence."

Figures from Lancashire Police revealed that Pennine Division -- which covers Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale -- has the highest number of domestic violence incidents reported, followed by Eastern Division -- which covers Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley.

Between April last year and January 2002, 4,364 incidents were reported in the Pennine Division and 3,181 incidents of domestic violence were reported in Eastern Division.

A spokeswoman for the Domestic Violence Helpline, based in Burnley, said: "If the law changed so the police could bring the prosecution instead of the woman having to bring it, even though she is beaten black and blue when the police arrive, then the man wouldn't be able to put the blame on her."