And, Leeds Crown Court heard, Ann-Marie Lacey talked her victim into protecting her by telling the police he had been knifed by a street robber.

Lacey, now of no fixed abode, was drinking between six and nine litres of vodka a day at the height of her alcoholism.

On other days she would drink between two-and-a-half and three litres of cider.

On the day of the attack, last Christmas Eve, Lacey's friend, Shailendra Tewari walked uninvited into her flat in Trentham Street, Beeston, Leeds.

Prosecutor Craig Hassall told Friday' hearing that Mr Tewari woke Lacey and asked to borrow change for the phone box or to use her mobile phone.

But the defendant, who was drunk, became angry, Mr Hassall said, and the two friends argued before Lacey went into the kitchen.

Unknown to Mr Tewari, she returned armed with an eight-inch kitchen knife.

"When she came back Mr Tewari was sitting on the edge of the bed," Mr Hassall said. "He felt blows and thought he had been punched, then he realised he had been stabbed. He bled heavily and his clothes were quickly soaked in blood."

Mr Hassall said that Lacey, 46, immediately apologised to her victim and rang for an ambulance.

He was treated in hospital for a five centimetre stab wound to his chest, that caused internal bleeding, and a four centimetre arm wound.

Lacey asked Mr Tewari not to tell the police what had happened, hatching the plot about the robber.

But the lies fell apart when her girlfriend was questioned and told officers she had seen Lacey wield the knife.

Nigel Edwards, for Lacey, said his client had a long-standing dependency on alcohol, that had begun in her teenage years and had its roots in issues from her childhood.

He asked the Judge, James Stewart QC, to keep any custodial sentence short so Lacey could receive support from the probation service.

She had admitted a charge of wounding at an earlier hearing.

Judge Stewart sentenced Lacey to 12 months in jail, meaning she will be released in weeks after serving more than five months on remand.

He told her: "I hope that when you are released you try to address the problems you have with the help of the probation service."