A FRINTON woman has been jailed indefinitely for stabbing her partner to death just hours after he asked her to marry him.

Roddy Ashworth

A FRINTON woman has been jailed indefinitely for stabbing her partner to death just hours after he asked her to marry him.

Anne Starmore, 60, used a kitchen knife to stab her partner, Michael Bernhardt, in the thigh during a drink-fuelled argument.

Bernhardt, 61, then bled to death on the stairs outside their Queens' Road flat because he was so drunk he could not do anything to save himself.

Starmore was found guilty of manslaughter after she admitted the killing, which happened on March 20 last year.

She had said that he had attacked her first, but a statement issued after the trial by Bernhardt's family claimed that she had been the violent partner in the relationship.

“Our father has been portrayed by Anne Starmore as a violent man, but this is so far from the truth,” they said.

“He was a loving caring gentle kind-hearted man who would do his utmost to help others.

“His life with her has been a living nightmare.

“She had a hold over him and he found it hard to leave her for whatever reason.

“Since his death we have discovered the extent to which she beat him.

“Our father was a proud man and would never have admitted to his children that he was a victim of domestic violence, and we are deeply saddened that these atrocious events had been going on without our knowledge for over a year.”

Judge Christopher Ball QC sentenced Starmore for four years in custody, but warned her that because she posed a threat to the public she would only be released when she was considered no longer to be a risk.