Silvertown woman had knives to confront love rival

Thursday, May 3, 2012
4:00 PM

A jealous woman grabbed two knives to confront her partner’s mistress after hearing she had given birth to his child, a court heard.

Karen Richardson, 50, had a drunken row with her partner of 15 years and stormed out with the six inch and eight inch blades in her handbag.

She was stopped by police on the way to a nearby bus stop in Silvertown, and said she was going to confront her rival, Inner London Crown Court heard.

Peter Dahlsen, defending, said although Richardson had left home with the intention of a confrontation, she had quickly come to her senses and had called her partner’s mother-in-law to come and pick her up.

Richardson described the incident on September 6 last year as a “moment of madness” and she had the knives only for protection.

“Karen Richardson fully accepts that matters got well out of hand on that night and she makes no excuses for her actions,” Mr Dahlsen said.

“She deeply, deeply regrets them.”

Judge Mark Bishop told Richardson: “It would seem that you were being confronted by the fact that your then partner had a child with a girlfriend, which you had just learned about.

“You were being confronted by the child and the contact that he was having with the girlfriend.”

“Judge Bishop added: “These courts see frequent examples of people whose lives have been damaged by the use of knives.”

“And so knives are a very serious offence and are therefore taken very seriously.”

Richardson, 42, of Saville Road, Silvertown, admitted two charges of possession of a bladed article and was given an eight-month sentence suspended for 18 months.