Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
AN Oxford University student who stabbed her Cambridge-educated Tinder boyfriend during a drug and alcohol-fuelled rage could avoid a jail term thanks to her “extraordinary” talent for medicine.
Lavinia Woodward’s dreams of becoming a heart surgeon appeared doomed after a bloody altercation with her then-lover at Christ Church College last December.
But the 24-year-old was thrown a lifeline when Judge Ian Pringle QC deferred her sentence for four months and hinted she may be spared jail in order to save a promising career as a heart surgeon.
“It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinarily talented young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to, would be a sentence which would be too severe,” Judge Pringle told Oxford Crown Court.
“What you did will never, I know, leave you but it was pretty awful, and normally it would attract a custodial sentence, whether it is immediate or suspended.”
Woodward, who met the victim on dating app Tinder, became “erratic” and rude towards him during their relationship, prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the hearing.
The young man, whose name is suppressed, was staying at the college when he popped out to the chemist to collect Woodward’s medication at about 6pm on December 30 last year.
When he returned, he found Woodward’s behaviour had “deteriorated” following a binge on drink and unspecified drugs.
Not knowing how to handle the situation, he called Woodward’s mother on Skype, triggering a violent response from the young woman.
The court heard Woodward lashed out at him with her arms and legs, striking him in the face before lunging at him with a bread knife and thrusting it into his thigh.
The victim pushed Woodward back with his hands but she went for him again, hurling a laptop, drinking glass and a jam jar at him before turning the blade on herself, resulting in superficial injuries.
Defence barrister James Sturman QC described his client as a “drug addict” who had endured a “very troubled life” and abuse at the hands of another ex-boyfriend.
Mr Sturman said Christ Church College had agreed to allow her to return to the college in October “because she is that bright”, with numerous articles already published in medical journals.
While free on bail since the attack, Woodward has been dividing her time between homes in London and Italy, where she attended the $AU28,000 per year Sir James Henderson British School of Milan as a teenager.
She left the school in 2011 and began a degree in medicine at Oxford later the same year.
Woodward is considered a prodigy among prodigies at the prestigious institution.
She is currently believed to be holidaying in Barbados.
According to The Telegraph, her name appears on articles published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Hypertension, and The Journal of Physiology.
An unnamed source told the paper that Woodward’s ambition had been to cure heart disease, and that she had come top of her year in the preclinical tests that all Oxford medical students take at the end of their third year.
Mr Sturman said his client had been making “every effort” to get her life back on track.
“She has been seeing a counsellor,” he said. “This is not a soft option — this is a judge giving her a fair chance to prove herself.”
A spokesman for Christ Church College told the Guardian: “I’m afraid that Christ Church does not comment on the circumstances of individual students.”
Woodward, who admitted unlawful wounding and will be sentenced on September 25, was handed a restraining order, and told to stay drug free and not reoffend.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...n/news-story/51b4127d5c78a252a789adde5878dc7f
Lavinia Woodward’s dreams of becoming a heart surgeon appeared doomed after a bloody altercation with her then-lover at Christ Church College last December.
But the 24-year-old was thrown a lifeline when Judge Ian Pringle QC deferred her sentence for four months and hinted she may be spared jail in order to save a promising career as a heart surgeon.
“It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinarily talented young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to, would be a sentence which would be too severe,” Judge Pringle told Oxford Crown Court.
“What you did will never, I know, leave you but it was pretty awful, and normally it would attract a custodial sentence, whether it is immediate or suspended.”
Woodward, who met the victim on dating app Tinder, became “erratic” and rude towards him during their relationship, prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the hearing.
The young man, whose name is suppressed, was staying at the college when he popped out to the chemist to collect Woodward’s medication at about 6pm on December 30 last year.
When he returned, he found Woodward’s behaviour had “deteriorated” following a binge on drink and unspecified drugs.
Not knowing how to handle the situation, he called Woodward’s mother on Skype, triggering a violent response from the young woman.
The court heard Woodward lashed out at him with her arms and legs, striking him in the face before lunging at him with a bread knife and thrusting it into his thigh.
The victim pushed Woodward back with his hands but she went for him again, hurling a laptop, drinking glass and a jam jar at him before turning the blade on herself, resulting in superficial injuries.
Defence barrister James Sturman QC described his client as a “drug addict” who had endured a “very troubled life” and abuse at the hands of another ex-boyfriend.
Mr Sturman said Christ Church College had agreed to allow her to return to the college in October “because she is that bright”, with numerous articles already published in medical journals.
While free on bail since the attack, Woodward has been dividing her time between homes in London and Italy, where she attended the $AU28,000 per year Sir James Henderson British School of Milan as a teenager.
She left the school in 2011 and began a degree in medicine at Oxford later the same year.
Woodward is considered a prodigy among prodigies at the prestigious institution.
She is currently believed to be holidaying in Barbados.
According to The Telegraph, her name appears on articles published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Hypertension, and The Journal of Physiology.
An unnamed source told the paper that Woodward’s ambition had been to cure heart disease, and that she had come top of her year in the preclinical tests that all Oxford medical students take at the end of their third year.
Mr Sturman said his client had been making “every effort” to get her life back on track.
“She has been seeing a counsellor,” he said. “This is not a soft option — this is a judge giving her a fair chance to prove herself.”
A spokesman for Christ Church College told the Guardian: “I’m afraid that Christ Church does not comment on the circumstances of individual students.”
Woodward, who admitted unlawful wounding and will be sentenced on September 25, was handed a restraining order, and told to stay drug free and not reoffend.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...n/news-story/51b4127d5c78a252a789adde5878dc7f
