A YOUNG mum is launching a bid to overturn her conviction for murdering the partner she claimed was the "love of her life".

Caroline Mawhood, 21, was jailed for life for stabbing her fianc Simon Gilchrist to death with a kitchen knife in a "moment of madness".

Lawyers for the York mum-of-two will go to the Court of Appeal in London on Monday to seek the right to challenge a guilty verdict by a jury in January.

Mawhood was told by Judge Paul Hoffman she must serve at least 12 years of her sentence before being considered for parole.

The Court of Appeal will decide whether Mawhood's barristers can bring the case back for a full appeal.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard Mawhood had been "blind drunk" when she plunged the knife into her 23-year-old partner's chest during a row at their home in Bell Farm on July 26, 2004.

Lawyers for the defendant are expected to point to Mawhood's immediate feeling of devastation over her sudden and fatal act.

When she called police to report what she had done, she said: "I love him. I cannot live without him" and added: "He went for me. I killed him."

Her barrister, Rodney Jameson QC, said during the trial that Mawhood had been suffering from depression and felt trapped in her flat, and had gone out drinking to "escape the pressures".

"In a moment of madness, for reasons that may never be known, she struck out," he said, adding the blow "destroyed many lives including her own".

After the trial, Mr Gilchrist's family said they felt "fragile and traumatised" and were in "deep grief over much-loved Simon."

It emerged Mawhood had no previous convictions, but had received two police cautions, including one for assaulting a police officer, and had cut a previous boyfriend with a knife in 2002.

Updated: 09:59 Saturday, November 26, 2005