A WOMAN has admitted stabbing her ex-boyfriend several times as he was driving a car.

Vicky Caskey had been due to stand trial for attempted murder at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

But Caskey of Miramar Avenue, Canvey, pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

The 28-year-old had been drinking with her ex-boyfriend Paul Lawrence, at the Hawk pub, in Battlesbridge, on January 14 when the attack happened.

The pair left the pub together and got into Mr Lawrence’s 4x4.

They were driving towards the Sadlers Farm roundabout, on the A130, when Caskey attacked Mr Lawrence, stabbing him in the chest, arm, wrist and slicing his thumb.

Mr Lawrence of Cranleigh Drive, Leigh, pulled the car over and a passing motorist dialled 999.

The gardener was taken to Basildon Hospital before later being transferred to Chelmsford’s Broomfield hospital for a four-hour operation.

During the short hearing, Caskey’s defence barrister David Etherington QC said she had never set out to hurt her former partner.

He told the court: “It has been consistently reported to psychiatrists her intention was to harm herself in front of him.

“It is clear, from the psychiatrists’ reports, that her feelings were in a state of confusion.”

At the time of the attack Mr Lawrence’s mother Stella said the first she heard of the attack was in a late-night phone call from police to say her son was in hospital.

Caskey, who did not sit in the dock, but sat behind her barrister accompanied by a relative, only answered to confirm her name and address and enter pleas to the charges.

Judge Christopher Mitchell adjourned her sentence until late December while reports are prepared.