A black woman who repeatedly stabbed her mother as she slept has walked free from court after a judge accepted that she believed that she was acting on the instructions of evil spirits

Lorraine Mbulawa, 20, attacked her mother with a kitchen knife. The 43-year-old victim saved herself by grabbing the weapon, but suffered serious face and arm injuries. Mbulawa, who was 18 at the time, was cleared of attempted murder at her trial at Leicester Crown Court but convicted of unlawful wounding. Psychiatrists said that she was not insane and that the jury agreed that she knew what she was doing. However, the black woman, who was born in Zimbabwe, escaped with a 12-month suspended prison sentence and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work. Passing sentence, Justice Keith said that he accepted that the defendant had strong beliefs in witchcraft and thought that she was possessed by the spirit of her dead grandmother at the time of the attack in May 2009.