A WOMAN who stabbed her ex-boyfriend's new partner after an altercation in the street has narrowly avoided jail.

Cassie Wise was told by a Teesside Crown Court judge that almost everyone who uses a knife in public is locked up.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told the 20-year-old that her age and guilty pleas had saved her from immediate prison.

Wise, from Guisborough, east Cleveland, admitted an actual bodily harm assault and having an offensive weapon.

She was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision and 120 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Bourne-Arton also ordered her to observe a curfew between 9pm and 7am for the next three months.

He said: "People who pick up a knife and try to sort out their problems would normally always go to prison.

"I have to take a number of factors into consideration such as your lack of previous convictions and your guilty pleas."

Julian Gaskin, mitigating, said Wise had been beaten up in an alleyway shortly before she stabbed Jodie Rutley in the leg.

She called the police to report "being jumped" and told them she had a knife and would take revenge on her attackers.

The court heard how she grappled with Miss Rutley on the ground before being held by her ex-partner Paul Jeffels.

Mr Gaskin told Judge Bourne-Arton that the man yelled at his new girlfriend: "Hit her or I'll hit you."

After the scuffle ended, Wise went to her home in nearby Chaloner Mews and returned with the lock-knife.

She later told police she was worried the windows of her home would be smashed and wanted to warn off her attackers.

The judge said he did not accept her reason for arming herself, but did believe she had been assaulted earlier.

MrGaskin described the stabbing as "a moment of madness" and said: "It is quite clear Cassie Wise is remorseful."

He added: "She was not thinking straight and what she did was wholly inappropriate."