30-year-old lover with another woman.

She grabbed an eight-inch kitchen knife, slashed her lover's water bed and then turned on Police trying to calm her down, a court heard yesterday.

Constance Eleanor Edness, 51, seemed "possessed by the devil'', Supreme Court was told.

Edness, a housekeeper at the Southampton Princess, admitted cutting P.

c. Robin Hollinsid in the head. He needed seven stitches.

She was given a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years. Crown prosecutor Mr. Melvin Douglas said the incident occurred in the early hours of June 26 last year, at the home of Edness' then boyfriend, Basil Gibbons.

Edness went to the apartment in Shelton Road, Pembroke, and discovered Gibbons was "entertaining another female friend''. A row followed, and landlord Dwayne Caines called the Police.

Gibbons left with the other woman while Edness shouted abuse. Edness went into the apartment and began pulling down curtains.

She took a knife from a kitchen drawer and stabbed the water bed, and then picked up a watch and put it in her pocket.

She shouted at the officers: "I'm going to send you to hell. You think I'm joking, but I'm going to put this in your heart. You just try me.'' P.c. Hollinsid tried to strike her wrist with his truncheon but missed, hitting the knife blade, Mr. Douglas said.

"Edness brought the knife up, and brought it down on P.c. Hollinsid's head, wounding his forehead.'' P.c. Russell Matthews then rushed her, grabbing her by the shoulders, but she brought the knife towards his stomach. She was restrained and eventually disarmed.

Edness, of Scenic Lane, Southampton, was held by Police for four days. She told them she didn't know what made her pick up the knife.

"I just went stupid crazy,'' she confessed. "I did not intend on using it. I came to my senses after I saw the blood dripping.'' Edness came to Bermuda from Jamaica in 1966. She married a Bermudian, who died four years ago. She has two sons aged 32 and 33.

She was twice convicted of assault in the 1970s. Mr. Douglas asked Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Ground to consider a jail sentence.

"This was a deliberate, malicious attack on a Police officer. It was certainly her intention to kill any one of the Police officers who approached her.'' But Edness' lawyer, Mr. Archie Warner, said it was a "peculiar case'' which called for a lesser sentence.

He said her earlier convictions were minor, arising from property squabbles with neighbours.

And the wound to the Policeman's head was a "minor nick'', not a stab. That night Edness had been waiting at home for Gibbons to arrive, he said. He hadn't shown up, so she had gone to his apartment.

The offence happened after continuous provocation, he said. Gibbons had assaulted her on numerous occasions and she felt "cheated, used, jilted and abandoned''.

Gibbons had admitted kicking her in the stomach and slapping her face, said Mr. Warner.

Edness had bought her boyfriend gifts and virtually furnished his apartment.

"In her state of mind she believed that she had the right to recover these belongings,'' he said.

She "snapped'', said Mr. Warner. As Caines, the landlord, told Police: "She looked as if she was possessed by the devil.'' Mr. Warner read out a plea for mercy from Edness' pastor, the Rev. Henry Shepherd of Christ Church, Warwick, which described her as hard-working and kindly, but with a short fuse.

The lawyer added: "It would be an injustice to incarcerate a 50-year-old woman in these circumstances.'' Edness told the judge that since the incident she had been confused and unable to work properly. "I'm awfully sorry,'' she added.

Mr. Justice Ground said such an offence would normally mean at least two years' jail. Police had to be protected from such attacks.

But he would take the "very exceptional step'' of suspending the sentence because of her circumstances.

"It would be inappropriate to send a woman of your character and your type to prison.''