A WOMAN has told her jury she was stabbed in the hand by her “controlling” ex-partner.

Abbie Finley gave evidence at Carlisle Crown Court, where 35-year-old James Topman has gone on trial.

Topman denies two charges. One alleges he unlawfully and maliciously wounded Miss Finley on October 18 in Carlisle.

He was “pacing up and down with a knife” he repeatedly jabbed towards her abdomen, she told jurors, adding: “The third time I thought it was inches away so I put my hands up to protect myself. That’s when he slashed that (her left hand).”

She received hospital treatment for a deep cut to her left hand.

A second charge alleges HGV driver Topman, of Polgate, East Sussex, assaulted her during a road journey. “He just chucked his phone right in my face,” she alleged.

During cross-examination Miss Finley revealed she suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder, but insisted she was properly medicated at the time of these incidents.

Of the knife allegation, she denied a suggestion by Brendan Burke, defending, that she went “into a rage” while Topman was preparing food, and “attacked him”.

She admitted initially telling hospital staff she injured herself while “cutting cheese”, saying: “It was because I was in fear.”

Opening the case, prosecutor Tim Evans had said: “The Crown’s case is that the defendant is a controlling and violent man.

“The defence case seems to be a mirror opposite: that she was an unstable and controlling woman, and on various occasions ‘lost it’, and during struggles that followed from her behaviour may have become injured but not by deliberate action on his part.”

The trial continues.