A nagging housewife who attacked her husband with a vegetable knife after a row about improvements to their kitchen has been kept behind bars.

Kathleen Stillings has already spent more than seven months in custody following the attack in June last year.

But a judge today decided that she would have to serve another four months inside.

Judge Alistair McCallum jailed the mother-of-three for 21 months after he said she had wounded her husband in "pretty horrific circumstances"

The sentence means she will have to serve half that time in custody before being released on licence.

Because he was concerned about future violence the judge considered imposing a restraining order for life on Stillings in a bid to keep her away from her husband, Philip, but he was told he did not have the power to do so.

Instead he asked the Crown Prosecution Service to write to Mr Stillings telling him about his rights to take out a civil injunction against her.

He told the tearful 55-year-old that he could not stop her contacting Mr Stillings but added: "May I advise you that it would not be very sensible for you to do that because it is inevitable there would be violence between the two of you.

"You have already served just over seven months. It was a very serious offence but it does seem to me I can keep the sentence as short as possible because of what you now say is your remorse," he told Stillings.

"Provided you behave yourself it won't be very long before you are out and you can take advantage of the help that is going to be given to you."

During her trial in November a jury head how Stillings had already pestered her husband to move their kitchen twice at their home in Victoria Avenue, Eccleshill.

Mr Stillings, an electrician, told a jury that his wife had exhibited "temper tantrums" throughout their 28-year marriage and had physically attacked him in the past when she didn't get her own way. The couple had gone to a Conservative Club for a drink when another row erupted over Stillings' demands for more cupboard units to be fitted in the kitchen and a breakfast bar to be taken down.

Her husband explained to the jury how he had already moved the kitchen from its original position into a porch and utility area at the rear of their house.

He said he tried to persuade her that the new lay-out would be too small but his wife insisted he do the work only to then change her mind.

Mr Stillings said he then had to move the kitchen units back, but this time they were fitted on a different wall.

He said after the argument in the club his wife hit him twice on the back before he left her and made his way home.

He admitted slapping his wife during the confrontation in their kitchen, but claimed she had struck him with a beaker and then tried to grab a pan of boiling water off the stove.

After a scuffle on the floor Stillings grabbed the vegetable knife in both hands and thrust it into her husband's chest.

He also suffered cuts to his left arm and shoulder blade during the incident.

Stillings was remanded in custody following the stabbing and at her trial she denied alternative charges of wounding her husband with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm and unlawful wounding.

The jury at Bradford Crown Court acquitted her on the more serious wounding with intent allegation, but found her guilty of the alternative.

She claimed that she had acted in self defence because she feared her husband was going to attack her.

"I've never seen him so cross. I thought he was going to kill me," she told the court.

Her barrister Alex Bates told the court this morning that mental health workers dealing with Stillings had concluded that she was not suffering from any treatable mental condition, but did have personality disorder.

He told Judge McCallum that while in custody Stillings had been helped to get a place at Bradford College and was hoping to take part in a scheme run by Bradford Cathedral to train in office work.

Mr Bates said it was understood that Mr Stillings was planning to sell the matrimonial home and he added: "It is not Mrs Stillings' intention that she wishes to rekindle any relationship with her husband.

"She knows quite well that the relationship is over."

He said there were signs that Stillings was now looking forward rather than looking back.