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A young woman smashed a mirror over her boyfriend's head just seven weeks after being given a suspended sentence for slashing another partner in the face with a kitchen knife.

Stephanie Ines Priscella Roberts launched the alcohol and drug-fuelled assault on her Swansea University partner after a heated row and, when police arrived, locked herself in his room and claimed to be the victim.

Less than two months earlier, the 21-year-old had been given a two-year suspended sentence for attacking a different partner who was studying at Warwick University.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court told Roberts she was accomplished at play-acting and manipulating people, but she had to face up to the consequences of her actions.

Craig Jones, prosecuting, said Roberts had been in a relationship with Michael Deery since 2015 when then pair had met at college.

That relationship continued when Mr Deery moved Swansea to start university.

The prosecutor said that, according to Mr Deery, the relationship began to deteriorate as his partner became jealous, taking control of his Facebook account in the weeks before she attacked him.

(Image: South Wales Police)

On January 16 this year, Mr Deery returned to Swansea from his home in London by coach, accompanied by Roberts.

Mr Jones said the pair went to Mr Deery's flat in the university's Hendrefoilan Student Village where they spent the evening watching films on his laptop.

The court heard housemates of Mr Deery later became aware of a "disturbance" in his room and called the police after hearing Roberts shouting that she was going to kill her boyfriend, and that he was going to hell.

The court heard that Mr Deery then staggered from his room covered in blood, and sat in the kitchen where his friends tended to his wounds.

The prosecutor said Roberts had "lunged" at her partner while they were together in his room, hitting him to the head and face with both hands.

She had then armed herself with a makeup mirror and smashed it on his head with what the victim called an "over-arm motion", leaving him with a three-inch cut in the hairline and required three stitches.

The court was told that by the time police arrived, Roberts had locked herself in Mr Deery's room, later telling officers she was scared of her partner and she was in fact the victim.

Roberts, of Weatherby Gardens, South Kensington, London, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the incident involving Mr Deery.

Prior to that incident, Roberts was given a two-year sentence - suspended for two years - in November last year and was made the subject of a rehabilitation course after pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to a different partner.

That conviction resulted from an incident in November 2016 when she had slashed then boyfriend Ravi Benitez in the face with a large kitchen knife after visiting him at his flat at Warwick University.

The judge in the Warwick case heard that Roberts suffered a mentally abusive and "toxic" relationship at the hands of 19-year-old Mr Benitez, and on the night in question had been under the influence of alcohol and the tranquiliser Xanax - substances given to her by her then partner.

For that offence, she was given a two-year sentence suspended for two years, along with an intensive rehabilitation course and a restraining order banning her from contacting Mr Benitez.

Adam Western, defending, told Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday that his client was a vulnerable young woman who, following the incident in Warwick, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and emotionally unstable personality disorder.

He said she had been making good progress on tackling her mental health issues and was now drug-free, and he asked the judge not to activate the previously imposed sentence and to allow his client to continue engaging with probation and other agencies. He added that she was now in a new relationship.

Judge Geraint Walters said he had given the case "much anxious thought", and noted the similarities in the two assaults, including the consumption of alcohol and Xanax by the defendant. In the Swansea incident, there was no suggestion that Roberts' partner had supplied the substances.

Sentencing, Judge Walters said: "It seems to me that lying and manipulating others comes quite easily to you. For far too long you have been able to persuade others close to you that nothing is your fault."

He told her that at the age of 21, the time had come for "no more excuses" and she had to face the circumstances she was in.

He said the the sentence imposed in Warwick Crown Court in 2017 had been "as merciful as was possible", and that at the time Roberts would have been warned what would happen to her if she were to re-offendduring the period of its operation.

Roberts was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for the Swansea assault, and the judge activated 12 months of the previously imposed two-year suspended sentence from the Warwick incident to run consecutively - making a total of 21 months in prison for the defendant.