A WOMAN stabbed a neighbour in the back in a dispute over noise from a barbecue.

Durham Crown Court heard the neighbour, who was looking after his two young children at his home in Sherburn Village, took exception to the level of music being played in the nearby garden, of Ashleigh and Stuart Wild, between 9pm and 9.30pm on September 3.

He went to remonstrate and the volume was lowered, but there was a subsequent Facebook exchange in which the neighbour told her they should sort their differences out in the morning, “when everyone was sober”.

But, later, Wild, who had a knife, and her husband went to the neighbour’s home where there was a struggle involving the two men.

Andrew Finlay, prosecuting, said while Stuart Wild was holding his neighbour’s arms, Ashleigh Wild delivered three blows with the knife to his lower back.

Mr Finlay said the victim went to his sister’s home nearby for help and was taken to hospital, where he received five stitches to the wound, which narrowly missed his spine and kidney.

Following the incident, Stuart Wild was heard saying “get rid of it” and the bloodstained knife was later recovered from a nearby field, although the tip was retrieved from the scene.

When arrested, Ashleigh Wild, 33, denied assault.

But, on the day of trial, she admitted unlawful wounding, while her 37-year-old husband admitted affray.

Amrit Jandoo, mitigating said the couple, now of Bedeswell Close, Hebburn, moved from Sherburn following the incident.

Mr Jandoo told the court Wild, of previous good character, suffered with stress and depression, exacerbated by the court case.

He added that although three blows were delivered, only one caused the wound.

She was given a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 30 probation activity days, while her husband was ordered to perform 200 hours unpaid work.

Recorder Euan Duff made both subject to five-year restraining orders forbidding contact with their former neighbour.