A jealous wife who plunged a kitchen knife into the chest of her husband, wept as she was warned she faced a substantial prison sentence.

A jury found Catherine Melngalvis, 41, guilty of attempting to murder husband Robin after they rowed over a text message he had received from a woman friend.

He suffered a punctured lung when his furious wife stabbed him as he sat defenceless in his armchair.

Police found her minutes later, in the bedroom, distraught and covered in her mother-in-law's ashes, which she had thrown around the room.

Yesterday the jury of eight women and four men took just two hours to unanimously convict Melngalvis, who had denied attempted murder, following a two-day trial at Leeds Crown Court. The judge, Mr Justice Mackay, adjourned sentencing for probation and psychological reports.

Remanding her in custody he warned her: "I don't want you to have any illusions, the jury having convicted you of this charge. It is a serious charge and normally the sentence for it is a significant and substantial prison sentence. That has to be faced."

The trial heard how the couple had had a relatively short and turbulent marriage with long periods of separation.

In September last year the couple were having a reconciliation and went out drinking together. But they argued about a text message to Mr Melngalvis from a woman he described as his best friend.

The row escalated when he mentioned the name of a man she had had a fling with while they were separated.

Prosecutor Howard Crowson told the court: "It may be she harboured some concerns about her husband having feelings for another woman. She seemed to have some jealous feelings to the other woman."

Mr Melngalvis told the court that he was dozing in the armchair of their home in Springbank Rise, Keighley, when he found his wife standing in front of him with two large chopping knives in her hands.

He described how she rubbed the knives down the side of his face, before stabbing him in the back of the hand and thrusting one of the knives into his chest, causing his lung to collapse.

Mr Melngavis managed to disarm her in the doorway and went to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm.

When police arrived they found Mrs Melngavis in the bedroom covered in a grey powder, which later proved to be her mother-in-law's ashes. She later admitted: "I got his mother out of the urn and scattered her all over the bedroom."

The court heard Mrs Melngalvis had twice before threatened to stab her husband and had also punched him.

She claimed to the jury that the stabbing had been accidental. She admitted rubbing the knives on his face but said he had grabbed her wrists to try to hold her off him and during the struggle one of the knives punctured his chest.

Ian Howard, defending, told the judge she had voluntarily started an anger management course through the bail hostel where she was living.

After the case, Detective Sergeant Stuart Lyons, of Keighley CID, said the motive for the attack was clearly jealousy of the other female, who was simply Mr Melngalvis' best friend.

Det Sgt Lyons said: "This was a callous and deliberate attack on her husband as he sat defenceless in his own armchair, having returned home from a social evening.

"The marriage was short but it was a very turbulent relationship and they spent several months apart."

He added: "Out of bitterness she discarded the ashes in the marital bedroom. Police found her laid in the ashes which she had thrown all over."