A WOMAN walked free from court after admitting killing her abusive husband. And Doris Keningale (pictured) told the Argus about the moment she killed the man she loved.

Vincent Keningale, 61, died after the knife his wife was holding plunged into his heart during an argument at the couple's home in Snowdon Close, Ty-Sign, Risca, last September, Cardiff crown court heard.

Civil servant Doris Keningale, 43, denied murdering her husband but admitted manslaughter. Yesterday she was spared a prison sentence for what a judge called a "tragic" and "exceptional case".

Instead she was sentenced to a community rehabilitation order for three years and directed to receive medical treatment.

Keningale exclusively told the Argus she still loves her husband, despite suffering years of domestic abuse at his hands.

She said: "If I could only turn back the time - I would give my left arm and my right arm. I don't know how to live with it.

"It is something I will never be able to come to terms with."

German-born Keningale met Italian-born Vincent at a Cliff Richard concert in Usk in 1991 and they married a year later.

But Keningale said her "charming and lovely" husband gradually became an abusive and violent man who drank three litres of wine a night.

On the night of the killing, Mr Keningale said he hated his wife and wished she were dead, the court heard. Keningale, who was making sandwiches, picked up an eight-and-a-half-inch knife. She said: "He was so full of hate and I just picked it up and I know I didn't force it. He jumped up forward. It was an accident."