A WOMAN wielding a knife attacked her ex-partner after accusing him of selling the wedding dress she was supposed to marry in.

Manchester Crown Court heard how Jade Lees flew into a rage when Stacey Crossley dropped their children off at her home — with his new girlfriend sat in the car.

Charlotte Rimmer, prosecuting, told how Mr Crossley and 28-year-old Lees had been together for four years but separated in 2016.

On October 23, 2018 Mr Crossley went to her home to return their two daughters after they had spent the weekend with him and his girlfriend Michelle Morley.

Miss Morley waited in the car while he took the children to the house but Lees came running out of the property.

"She was shouting about her wedding dress and he describes that she grabbed his glasses, screwed them up in her hand and threw them onto the floor," said Miss Rimmer.

The Cartier glasses, which Mr Crossley says were worth £2,300, smashed.

"While he was picking up the pieces of glass from the floor, she punched him in the face," said Miss Rimmer.

Lees headed back into the house and returned with a kitchen knife, which she jabbed towards him.

"Her focus then switched to Michelle Morley in the vehicle," said Miss Rimmer.

Mr Crossley grabbed Lees' arms and bit her in a bid to disarm her.

He managed to take the knife from her and put it in the car, telling Miss Morley to drive away as Lees headed towards the vehicle again.

The couple drove away and contacted police and Lees, of Newgate Drive, Little Hulton, was arrested several weeks later.

"She accepted damaging Mr Crossley's glasses and said she did so when she was annoyed with him because she thought he had stolen her wedding dress," said Miss Rimmer.

Lees claimed the children did not witness the incident because they had already gone inside the house and said she had got the knife because she intended to slash his car tyres with it.

Lees pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Crossley and possessing a knife.

In a victim statement to the court Mr Crossley said he feared for his life and has had to contact his GP with suspected PTSD due to the incident.

Lees has no previous convictions and, the court heard, suffers from depression and damaged nerves in her back.

Joe Boyd, defending, stressed that she is "contrite" about her offending, which as not been repeated.

"It was the first time she had been face-to-face with this new girlfriend," he said.

"She didn't realise he had a new girlfriend and there was some dispute about a wedding dress that went missing.

"She thought that she was going to get married in it."

Judge Alan Conrad QC sentenced Lees to a community order for two years during which she will be electronically tagged and subject to a 9pm to 6am curfew for two months.

She must also participate in 15 days of rehabilitation activities.

"On this occasion, nearly two years ago, when you were overwrought, you took up a knife and that is a serious thing to do and your behaviour was irrational, it was aggressive and it was frightening," the judge told her.

But he added that the public interest would not be served by sending her to prison.