A woman left her boyfriend brain-damaged after she stabbed him during a drunken row.

Mary Walker stabbed Tony Burns with a knife which sliced through his liver and punctured his bowel. He lost so much blood he has not fully recovered.

Walker, 45, had denied causing Mr Burns grievous bodily harm at her trial at Hove Crown Court on Monday.

She claimed she was so drunk she could remember nothing about the stabbing in July last year.

Walker changed her plea to guilty after hearing a friend describe to the jury how she witnessed the stabbing.

She was given a three-year community rehabilitation order yesterday.

Antoinette Mackison-Sandbach, defending, said Walker, of Swanborough Drive, Brighton, had been an alcoholic since she was a teenager.