One of the attributes you would expect an aspiring surgeon to possess is being handy with a knife. Lavinia Woodward, a medical student from Oxford University, amply demonstrated her proficiency when she stabbed her then-boyfriend in the leg during what was termed “a drug and alcohol fuelled row” at Christ Church College last year.

The judge, Ian Pringle QC, I learned this week, has taken a rather lenient view of the events, deferring sentence for four months and indicating that a custodial sentence would damage what would otherwise have been a Glittering Career.

Surely this is an example of one law for geniuses and one law for the lumpen prole, if there ever was one. Still, it is a useful argument to keep in the back pocket, if the need arises.

Filed under: Humour, News Tagged: Christ Church College Oxford, Judge Ian Pringle QC, Lavinia Woodward, student likely to avoid jail to save her glittering career