Woman chased female lover with knife after break-up

hinchcliffe, who threatened to kill herself over affair ending, is jailed

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A young woman chased her female lover with a bread knife after their relationship broke up, a trial at Fort William Sheriff Court heard yesterday.

The court also heard that Daniela Hinchcliffe, 20, threatened to kill herself over the break-up of the affair.

They were the latest incidents in what Sheriff Douglas Small yesterday called a “corrosive relationship” between the two women, which had lasted almost three years.

He sentenced Hinchcliffe to 180 days at Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only all-women prison, after telling her she appeared to have no regard for orders of the court.

The sentence was backdated to May 15 when she was taken into custody. She was also fined £450, but given no time to pay.

Hinchcliffe, of 5 Patience Way, Caol, went on trial denying a charge relating to one of the incidents, in which it was alleged she shouted, swore and kicked in a door while holding a knife in the presence of Kelly Livingstone, 21, whose address was given as c/o Northern Constabulary, on December 8.

During an argument at Hinchcliffe’s home, she picked up a bread knife after being told Ms Livingstone was seeing someone else.

“She was very angry and ran out of the house after me, with the knife in her hand,” Ms Livingstone said in evidence.

A police officer told the court that Hinchcliffe in a statement said: “I just wanted to grab her and scream at her for what she had done. I wanted to self-harm so she could see it.”

After hearing all the evidence on that charge, Sheriff Small found her guilty.

The court heard that Hinchcliffe, who appeared from custody, had breached deferred sentence bail conditions and probation orders relating to other charges she admitted.

These included breaking a curfew order on May 14, when she was taken into custody, and breaching bail conditions by contacting Ms Livingstone in November, 2006.

She also assaulted Ms Livingstone in the same month, punching her on the head, holding her in a headlock and kneeing her in the face.

Sheriff Small told Hinchcliffe that she had failed to take the many opportunities given to her.

But any prospect of avoiding a custodial sentence had now gone. “The day of reckoning has arrived,” he said.

Hinchcliffe told the court that she was still friends with Ms Livingstone, who sat in the court.