A 46-year-old mother who killed her violent boyfriend in front of her teenage daughter has been jailed for six years by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court.

The court heard that Lynne O’Regan stabbed her future husband, Charlie Murphy, in the chest at their home in Coats Avenue, Sheerness, after they had both been drinking heavily on July 21 last year.

O’Regan had returned home earlier than Mr Murphy, knowing there was likely to be trouble, said Judge Andrew Patience, QC, but she did not take any steps to avoid it.

She unwisely made phone calls to Mr Murphy, annoying and inflaming him. She also put some of his clothing in a bag and dumped it outside.

It was when he arrived home and attacked O’Regan that she stabbed him twice in front of one of her two daughters, Amber, then aged 15.

Anthony Alliston, defending, said it was paradoxical that the relationship was in some ways very happy and they were planning to marry in September last year.

“This is a classic case of her being provoked and stabbing the victim in the heat of a very fierce assault," he said. “It happened in the white heat of the moment. She suffers from a clinical personality disorder and also has alcohol dependency. There may also be clinical depression.”

O’Regan was cleared in January of murdering Mr Murphy but convicted of manslaughter.