A DRUNKEN argument ended with a Dudley man stabbing his partner in the eye with a samurai sword.

Wayne Steventon and Jacqueline Pearce had both been out drinking and when they returned to their Dudley home, he began verbally abusing her during an argument, said Charlotte Johnson, prosecuting.

Miss Johnson told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Steventon had followed his partner of 13 years upstairs, pushed her onto a bed and then picked up the samurai sword.

The 46-year-old stabbed her in the eye with the weapon before punching her in the mouth.

In a victim impact statement, Miss Pearce later told police she was now frightened of Steventon after he had "controlled" her for so long.

Steventon, now of no fixed address, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and Michael Anning, defending, said he now accepted their relationship had come to an end.

"They had been drinking together, they rowed and she threw around his DVDs. He knows that is no justification at all for what he did. It was an over-reaction."

Mr Anning said Miss Pearce had now made a full recovery from the injury she sustained and told the court it was Stevenson who had asked to be made the subject of a restraining order to keep them apart in the future.

Judge Simon Ward told Steventon it was down to good fortune that Miss Pearce had not suffered any permanent damage to her sight, adding: "Mercifully she suffered no long term consequences. If you stab someone in the eye it is really serious and here you used a fearsome weapon."

He said Steventon had clearly got angry when Miss Pearce started to "mess" with his personal belongings and he picked up the sword and removed its sheath.

"An assault with a bladed weapon like this is so serious I have to send you to prison," he told Steventon - a man of previous good character - as he jailed him for 28 months.