son was sent to prison for two-and-a-half years for wounding his former girlfriend with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Charles Gladwin Williams, of Laffan Street, went to the church workplace of his former girlfriend, Carla Simons, last July and stabbed her, the Supreme Court heard.

Williams also threatened to strangle Simons who had left him a month due to his alcoholism.

Crown counsel Mr. Stephen Harrison said Williams, after frequently calling Simons, went to her job at Christ Church, Warwick where she served as a Montessori camp counsellor on July 27.

There he grabbed Simons by the arm, Mr. Harrison said, and told her he wanted to speak with her.

Simons initially agreed to speak with Williams in the church yard, but later became apprehensive because of Williams' manner.

Williams then pushed her to the ground and made a motion to stab her with a knife usually used for sharpening masonry pencils.

Simons grabbed the blade to prevent Williams from stabbing her and received cuts to her left hand.

She was then stabbed in the right forearm and her screams for help were heard by the church gardener who after a struggle managed to pull Williams off her.

Williams left and Simons was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where she required 30 stitches to her left hand and six stitches to her right forearm.

Williams, who had previous convictions for unlawful assault, possessing an offensive weapon, and using threatening words, later admitted producing a knife.

But he told Police he only wanted to talk with her.

He said Simons gripped the knife as soon as she saw it and received the arm injury when they struggled for the knife and she fell to ground.

Hospital emergency service direcgtor Dr. Edward Shultz, called to testify by William's lawyer Mr. Richard Hector QC, said it appeared Simons had tried to grab the knife.

But he was not sure if that was the case with the wound between her thumb and forefinger.

Two character witnesses said the offence was out of character for Williams who they described as kind and a hard worker.

Mr. Hector said Williams started drinking some 20 years but had not consumed alcohol for six months prior to the July incident.

The divorced father of two lived with his mother whom he idolised.

He said Williams became upset with Simons the day before he went to her job because they had a heated argument in which she blamed his mother for his alcohol problem.

Williams, a self-employed mason, happened to have his tool bag with him when he approached Simons.

When the couple started to argue, Simons "said something about his mother and he, in a very foolish move, pulled the knife from the bag to frighten her''.

"She tried to grab the knife. They struggled and fell to the ground and continued to struggle,'' he said. "It seems that if he had tried to stab her, he would have succeeded.'' Mr. Hector said Williams pleaded guilty to the wounding charge because he did not want Simons to have to relive the ordeal in a trial.

Williams told Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward he was a born-again Christian and expressed remorse.

But Mr. Ward said: "The law is that the use of knife in these disputes always requires a custodial sentence''.

He said Williams should be treated for his alcoholism in prison.