A mother-to-be who stabbed her violent boyfriend as they clashed in the kitchen of their home has been jailed for 12 months.

As Jelena Gurcenko has served the equivalent of 10 months on remand, she is likely to be released within a month. If the sentence had been longer than a year, she would have faced possible deportation.

A judge told the 29-year-old Latvian, whose first baby is due in February: "Your unborn child deserves consideration and protection. Believe me when I say no judge wishes to see a child enter this world in prison."

Maidstone Crown Court heard she grabbed a knife and stabbed Erik Urtand in the abdomen at the house in Cryol Road, Ashford, on June 13 this year.

The couple had argued the night before the stabbing. She went out with friend Andra Kaleja, who also lived in the house, and they returned in the early hours.

Prosecutor Richard Scott said the argument continued. Gurcenko was to tell police she picked up the knife to protect herself from Mr Urtand.

"He pushed me. I had the knife in my pocket. I kept it there because I know Erik and how he can frighten me..." - prosecutor Richard Scott

She claimed she could not remember stabbing him, but admitted she must have done.

"He was very angry and started shouting and swearing at me," she said. "He pushed me. I had the knife in my pocket. I kept it there because I know Erik and how he can frighten me.

"He swung his fist at me. He started to walk towards me. I pulled the knife from my pocket. It just happened he caught the knife."

Afterwards, she left the house and threw the weapon away. She said she could not remember where and it had not been found.

Gurcenko said she discovered she was pregnant by Mr Urtand after her arrest.

Mr Scott told the jury: "The prosecution say you can be sure this defendant deliberately stabbed her partner with the intention to cause him really serious harm.

"It is clear the injuries were inflicted in temper and inflamed by staying out late and drinking. If she was scared she would have fled the house when the argument occurred."

But Gurcenko was cleared of wounding with intent and convicted of the lesser offence of unlawful wounding by a 10-2 majority. She denied both charges.

Judge Philip Statman said there was "a slow burning background of domestic violence" and a degree of provocation.

"On his own admission, the complainant accepts he hit her in the past," he said. "For any man to hit a woman in those circumstances is deeply unattractive."

But the judge emphasised the violent use of knives had to be deterred.

"Knife crime is abhorrent and the consequences can be devastating," he told Gurcenko. "You have some serious thinking to do about how to conduct yourself as a mother, but that is not for this court to lecture you upon.

"She fell into prostitution as a way to fund a form of lifestyle. That stopped when she met Mr Urtand..." - Kieran Brand, defending

"Clearly, this case passes the custody threshold but justice tempered with mercy is a concept not just known within literature. That concept is, and always will be, alive in this court."

He added: "Think carefully about what you decide to do next."

Kieran Brand, defending, said Gurcenko came to the UK in 2011 and lived in Bradford, West Yorkshire, where she "fell in" with a group of Pakistani men who took her passport and attempted to force her into an arranged marriage.

The police became involved and arrests were made. She moved to Folkestone with no money and lived on the streets.

"She fell into prostitution as a way to fund a form of lifestyle," said Mr Brand. "That stopped when she met Mr Urtand."

Gurcenko planned to move to Gillingham to live with friends.

Judge Statman said: "That doesn't fill me with confidence. Why does she want to stay in the United Kingdom?"

Mr Brand said Gurcenko, a dressmaker, came here to make a better life for herself.

The judge added: "She doesn't seem to have achieved that sadly."

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