A judge hit out at the rising tide of violent crime before letting a woman walk free from court for stabbing her neighbour in the face.

Helen Gyori, 53, of Clarendon Villas, Hove, pleaded guilty in December last year to wounding neighbour Simon Holland when he complained about noise from a party at her home.

The court heard Gyori, who wears a back brace, had drunk three pints of beer followed by wine and cocktails in the run-up to the attack.

Judge Richard Hayward told her she had escaped prison only because of her disability. He gave her an 18 month suspended sentence.

He condemned the crime as "extremely unpleasant and squalid" and spoke out against the rising number of crimes involving weapons.

He said: "The use of weapons is far too prevalent. It is clear you are emotionally vulnerable but that is no excuse for this sort of behaviour.

"Normally this would be a custodial sentence but for the disability."

Gyori, a Greek Cypriot who has lived in Britain since she was 12, was reunited with her son and daughter two years ago after they were abducted by their father in 1976, aged three and 18 months, and taken to Jamaica.

Mr Philip Meredith, defending, asked the judge to consider her honesty in confessing to the crime, as well as her vulnerable state of mind.

He said: "She was also willing to admit that the wound could not have been caused by her fingernails, and that a weapon must have been involved."