A WOMAN carried out a drunken sustained assault on her mother who had reluctantly let her into her home one night.

Samantha Jane Hope inflicted three small stab wounds on her mother while threatening to kill her, during the confrontation both inside and outside the house, in Peterlee, County Durham, on Sunday, October 26, last year.

During the attack she used scissors, a heeled shoe and a vegetable knife to injure her mother, who, nevertheless, managed to call 999 at one stage of the ordeal.

Durham Crown Court heard that an emergency services operator listened to the incident unfolding, including Hope saying if police came to the house her mother would not be alive.

When officers reached the scene, shortly after 10pm, the victim, who was wedging the back door closed with her foot to prevent her daughter regaining admission, allowed them in and pointed to the locked front door.

Ian Mullarkey, prosecuting, said Hope was found 30-metres away, holding a kitchen knife, which was removed from her.

She began screaming, pointing at her mother, shouting threats, and struggling as the officers detained her.

The 50-year-old victim was treated at hospital for small stab wounds to her upper chest area, her back and upper arm, but Mr Mullarkey said none was deep.

Hope told police she could recall little of the incident, having gone out drinking with a friend at 2pm the previous afternoon.

Mr Mullarkey said when police mentioned her mother, Hope told them: “She would have made me ‘kick-off’.

“She knows when I have had a drink not to argue with me.”

Mr Mullarkey added that her mother initially refused to allow her daughter in because she knew what she was like when she had been drinking, before finally relenting.

Twenty-year-old Hope, of Ashton Street, Easington Colliery, admitted unlawful wounding, possessing a bladed article in public and criminal damage.

Jane Waugh, mitigating, described it as, “somewhat of a tragic case”, as the defendant has had long-standing differences with her mother.

“But, she was still shocked at her behaviour.

“She doesn’t reject any of what is alleged and isn’t happy her mother was injured.”

Imposing a 26-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution, Judge Neil Clark told Hope: “This was a sustained attack on your mother, using a stiletto, scissors and a vegetable knife.

“Fortunately, the injuries were not particularly serious, but that was more by luck than judgement.”

Judge Clark also imposed a restraining order preventing Hope from contacting or approaching her mother, for ten years.