A former Rotary Club treasurer who stabbed two elderly neighbours in a horrifying robbery bid in their own home has had her prison sentence cut by top judges.

Rose Spanswick, 60, of Hawkenbury Way, Lewes, attacked James and Sheila Patmore with a butterfly knife after barging into their home on the afternoon of November 22 last year.

In March, after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary and two assaults with intent to rob, she was jailed for eight years at Lewes Crown Court.

But on Monday she was back in court again and watched in silence as her lawyers won a two-year cut in her sentence at the Court of Appeal in London.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC, sitting with Lord Justice Moses and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, said the eight-year term was too long, given Spanswick's difficult life.

Spanswick, widowed in 2004, had been heavily in debt, suffering badly with depression and had attempted suicide in the weeks before the attack, the judge said.

On the afternoon of November 22, she dressed in a skull-adorned black top, with mask, baseball cap and hood, and knocked on her neighbours' door.

Mrs Patmore, 74, answered and was rushed by Spanswick, who struggled with her on the floor, causing wounds with the butterfly knife.

Mr Patmore, 77, who had been asleep upstairs, came down and fought Spanswick off, before holding her to the ground, threatening to turn her knife on her if she did not stop struggling.

It was not until police arrived that Spanswick was unmasked and the blood-covered couple learned the identity of their attacker - a member of their own Rotary Club.

Lawyers for Spanswick argued that, although the attacks were serious, they had been completely out of character, a "moment of madness" in an otherwise blameless life.

A statement from Mr Patmore was read to the court, in which he agreed it was unlikely his neighbour would have acted like that if she had not been in such dire circumstances.

It would not help him at all if she was given a long prison sentence, he said, adding that he hoped she would receive help and guidance.

Giving the court's judgment, Judge Gilbert said the case would have been difficult for any sentencing judge.

He said: "On the one hand, the offences involved violence with a knife on an elderly couple in their home.

"On the other hand, the offender was a 60-year-old widow of previous excellent character, whose conduct was completely contrary to everything that was known or said about her.

"There was strong mitigation in relation to what had gone on in her life before and was said about her in all the references."

The correct sentence was six years, he said.