This was published 6 years ago
Oxford student who stabbed boyfriend could avoid jail due to 'extraordinary' talent
By Olivia Rudgard
An Oxford University student who stabbed her former boyfriend could be spared jail after a judge said she had an "extraordinary" talent for medicine.
Lavinia Woodward, 24, who studied at Christ Church College, Oxford, stabbed her Cambridge-educated boyfriend in the leg on December 30 last year following a row.
Lavinia Woodward stabbed her ex-boyfriend during a drink-and-drug fuelled row.Credit: Facebook
The pair had a drink and drug-fuelled argument and, when he threatened to call her mother, she punched him.
She then picked up a bread knife and stabbed him in the leg before hurling a laptop, glass and a jam jar at him.
Lavinia Woodward attended a £16,000-a-year international school in Milan.Credit: Facebook
The victim, believed to be a PhD student at Cambridge University, had begun dating Woodward earlier in the term after they met on dating app Tinder.
Woodward admitted a charge of unlawful wounding at Oxford Crown Court and Judge Ian Pringle said the offence would normally mean a custodial sentence.
But he then deferred sentencing for a period of four months and hinted that she would not be jailed - because of her "extraordinary" talent.
He said: "It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinarily able 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.
"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."
The court was told her college would allow her to return in October because she "is that bright" and has had articles published in medical journals.
However, she is unlikely to be able to become a surgeon as her criminal conviction would have to be disclosed, her barrister Jim Sturman, QC, said.
Woodward's name appears on articles published in medical journals including the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Hypertension and The Journal of Physiology.
A source said that her ambition had been to cure heart disease, and added that she had come top of her year in the pre-clinical tests that all Oxford medical students take at the end of their third year.
According to her Facebook page, she attended Sir James Henderson British School of Milan, a £16,000-a-year international school in the Italian city.
She left the school in 2011 and began her degree at Oxford in the same year.
She had a "very troubled life" and was abused by another former partner, her lawyer told the court.
Woodward, who was present in court for the sentencing hearing, is believed to be on holiday in Barbados. She is set to return to the university for the next academic year.
After the case Mr Sturman said that Woodward had been making "every effort" to get her life back on track and added: "She has been seeing a counsellor. This is not a soft option - this is a judge giving her a fair chance to prove herself."
Woodward will be sentenced on September 25. She was given a restraining order, and told to stay drug-free and not to reoffend.
A spokesman for Christ Church College said: "I'm afraid that Christ Church does not comment on the circumstances of individual students."
Telegraph, London