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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Yellowknife woman was given nine months probation on Thursday after she pleaded guilty to stabbing her boyfriend in the back with a steak knife.

The man was living with the defendant, Janice Hagen, 33, at the time of the Sept. 20 incident. Hagen was charged with assault with a weapon after she had gotten into an argument instigated by the victim, said Crown prosecutor Christine Gagnon.

She told the court the two had come back to the downtown apartment they shared after spending the evening drinking at several bars.

According to Gagnon, an argument ensued in a bedroom and the man picked up a steak knife and said to Hagen, "If you're angry at me why don't you use this?"

Hagen then took the knife and stabbed him in his right shoulder blade, inflicting a wound about an inch deep.

A youth who was in the apartment at the time told RCMP she heard the man say, "You stabbed me in the back and I just wanted to leave."

Defence lawyer Pat Cashman said Hagen had only a "partial recollection of what happened."

He also said Hagen has no previous criminal record and is no longer in a relationship with the man she stabbed.

"Up to this point she has been ... a positive member of society," said Cashman.

Before sentencing was handed down by Judge Robert Gorin, Hagen said she was remorseful for what she had done.

"I take complete ownership for what I've done ... I'm deeply ashamed of what happened," she said.

Gorin handed down a suspended sentence, which means if any of the terms of the court conditions are breached she can be brought back to court and re-sentenced.

Hagen was given nine months of a suspended sentence and a period of probation for that time. She was also put on conditions not to consume alcohol, to perform 50 hours of community service, pay a $50 victim of crimes surcharge and submit to a DNA order.