A YOUNG mother accused of stabbing her estranged husband during an argument has told a court that she picked up a kitchen knife to scare him off.Jodie Gray said that Adeeb Alsugair had pushed her against the sink in her kitchen and she was scared that he was going to hurt her, Ipswich Crown Court.

A YOUNG mother accused of stabbing her estranged husband during an argument has told a court that she picked up a kitchen knife to scare him off.

Jodie Gray said that Adeeb Alsugair had pushed her against the sink in her kitchen and she was scared that he was going to hurt her, Ipswich Crown Court.

She said she had grabbed hold of a knife and had held it in front of her in the hope of scaring him. “I was scared. He had been pushing me. I thought he was going to hurt me by punching or kicking me,” she said.

“I held the knife in front of him to make him feel scared. I thought he would stop and he would feel scared of me but he just laughed.”

Gray, 21, said she had shouted at Mr Alsugair to get out of the house and had stood by the front door holding the knife in front of her.

She said Alsugair had come towards her and she could tell by the look on his face that he had felt the knife injure him. She denied taking a step towards him.

“I was shocked. I thought he was going to die. I didn't want anything like that to happen,” said.

Gray said she had thrown a shirt at Mr Alsugair and had then shut the front door on him because she wanted him out of the house.

Gray, of Shackleton Road, Ipswich, has denied wounding Mr Alsugair in April last year.

She told the court that although she and her husband were estranged he had slept at her house the night before the alleged stabbing.

The next day they had argued because he had refused to get up to help her with their two young children.

She had told him to get out of the house and claimed that he had smashed a teacup and thrown an ironing board at her.

At that stage she went in her nightdress and smashed the windscreen of his car which was his “pride and joy”.

She said that after seeing the damage to his car, Mr Alsugair had followed her into the kitchen and had started pushing her and shouting at her.

Lindsay Cox, prosecuting, alleged that during the couple's argument Gray had threatened to kill her husband.

He said the prosecution did not accept Mr Alsugair's injury was caused accidentally.

The jury retired to consider its verdict yesterday and was sent home at teatime after failing to reach a verdict. They will return to court today to continue their deliberations.

jane.hunt@eadt.co.uk