A mother has been jailed for stabbing her partner, setting fire to a house and knifing a teenage friend, all within a month.

Tracey Dolby, 34, stabbed her former husband Graham Curtis in the neck with a 4in kitchen knife during an argument on August 12 last year.

Eight days later, she and Duane Morton, both of Quebec Road, Hastings, set fire to a house in their street.

On September 6, Dolby stabbed Morton, 18, in the stomach.

Nicholas Hall, prosecuting, told the court Dolby grabbed Morton by the shoulder before stabbing him.

Mr Hall said: "Her expression went from normal to extreme anger."

Morton's injury was so severe ambulance workers said if they had arrived 15 minutes later he would have died, Hove Crown Court was told.

Dolby pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Mr Curtis and wounding Morton with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A charge of attempted murder relating to the second case was dropped last November.

Both Dolby and Morton were convicted of arson earlier this year.

Tanya Robinson, defending Dolby, said her client attacked Morton because she believed he was spreading rumours about her involvement in the arson.

She had lost control "in a moment of madness" and was on a "downward spiral" after the death of a partner some years ago.

Ms Robinson said: "The situation was the direct result of the death of the only man she had ever found happiness with. When he died she went to pieces."

Dolby was jailed for six and a half years and Morton was sentenced to three years in a young offenders' institution for arson.