NINE-YEARS behind bars term is just “not long enough” for the woman who killed her boyfriend by stabbing him through the heart, his family said last night.

Natasha Elderfield was handed the term at Oxford Crown Court yesterday for killing Robert Dobinson on her boat in Abingdon on October 19.

A jury cleared her of murder but found the 41-year-old guilty of manslaughter following a two-week trial in April.

Elderfield stabbed 33-year-old Mr Dobinson in the heart with a serrated kitchen knife during a drunken argument involving another man she had on board that night, Tony Steggles.

Sentencing yesterday, Judge Patrick Eccles told her no sentence would make up for the “aching loss” felt by the family of the man he referred to as Raggy.

Yesterday, Mr Dobinson’s mother Violet Dobinson, of Faringdon, said: “Nine years is not enough, she killed someone; she stabbed him twice. I was in shock when the judge said it.”

Mr Dobinson’s sister Jackie Dobinson said: “It’s not worth my brother’s life. She should have got 12 years at least.

“We didn’t accept the jury’s verdict of manslaughter.

“As long as she gets locked up, we’re happy.”

More than 20 of Mr Dobinson’s friends and family attended the hearing, and many expressed their dismay sentence. Throughout the trial, Elderfield denied the charge of murder, leading the jury to believe that someone else had killed him.

Mr Dobinson was found lying injured near moorings by the River Thames, near Bridge Street, Abingdon, but died in hospital later despite emergency surgery.

At one point in the trial Elderfield’s defence barrister Andrew Hall said there was no convincing evidence Mr Dobinson was actually stabbed on board the boat or that Elderfield ever left the boat, suggesting she could not have been responsible.

But Judge Eccles, sentencing in what he called a “tragic” case, said: “I am satisfied that at the time you killed him you were both very drunk and in a rage.”

He reminded the jury that Elderfield had about 285 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of blood that night (the legal driving limit is 35mg) and said: “You were plainly extremely drunk. The first and most important thing to recognise is that as a result of your actions a well-loved son, brother and uncle was deprived of his life.

“The victim personal statements that I have read pay vivid testimony to Raggy’s good nature and to the aching sense of loss felt by his family.

“He didn’t deserve to die and his family and friends didn’t deserve to lose him. The harm you have caused is great and no sentence I can make will make it good.”

Det Chief Insp Kev Brown said yesterday: “This case sadly demonstrates the extreme outcomes that can emanate from excessive drinking and domestic violence. Elderfield may not have intended to kill Robert, but due to her violent and drunken actions, a family is left without their son and brother and his daughter is without her father.”