AN 'impressive' Oxford University student who slashed her lover with a bread knife has been spared jail.

Lavinia Woodward, 24, wept as she was told her crime was so serious a custodial sentence had to be imposed, albeit one which could be suspended.

Woodward, of Christ Church, Oxford, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Monday for one count of unlawful wounding, four months after Judge Ian Pringle QC hinted he would take the 'exceptional' course of deferring sentence for the promising, young medical student.

He said at the time: “It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinary able young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to, would be a sentence which would be too severe."

The incident, which she had already admitted, related to a single victim - a Cambridge University student - who was staying at Christ Church college on December 30 last year.

He left to fetch medication and returned shortly after to find Woodward's behaviour had ‘deteriorated’ and decided to call her mother on Skype for help.

Woodward then swung her arms and thumped him in the face, before lunging at him with a bread knife and stabbing him in the leg.

The victim leapt out, pushing his hands forward to defend himself and thrusting Woodward away.

But she hurled a laptop, glass and jam jar at him before scratching and stabbing herself with the blade.

Woodward, who met her ex-partner on dating app Tinder, had become ‘erratic’ and rude towards her victim during their relationship, prosecutor Cathy Oliver said.

At her sentencing today Judge Ian Pringle told Woodward: "Fortunately the wounds that your partner received were relatively minor.

"The two 1cm cuts to the fingers were treated at the scene with steri-strips and the cut to the leg was closed with three stitches.

"Although it was simply an item which was in your room at the time for perfectly legitimate purposes, you used a bread knife in this attack as a weapon and that raises this offence one of higher culpability."

He added that she was 'genuinely remorseful' and suffered from an unstable personality disorder, a severe eating disorder and dependency on drugs and alcohol.

Woodward was given a 10-month jail term, suspended for 18 months.