Katherine Knight
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Katherine Mary Knight (born 1956) is the first Australian woman to be jailed for the term of her natural life. She was convicted in October 2001 of the murder of her de facto husband, John Charles Thomas Price (born 1956), and is currently detained in Mulawa Correctional Centre.
Price and Knight lived together in Aberdeen, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Price was the father of two grown-up children when Knight, a former abbatoir worker, developed an acrimonious relationship with him. According to the Apprehended Violence Order that Price had filed against Knight, she had a previous history of violence in relationships; she had smashed the dentures of one of her ex-husbands and slashed the throat of another husband's eight-week-old puppy before his eyes. Price had also received death threats from her on previous occasions.
On or about 29 February 2000, Knight stabbed Price to death with a butcher's knife while chasing him around their home. Her fury was reportedly triggered by the AVO Price had filed against her the previous week.
The autopsy revealed that Price had been stabbed at least 37 times, in both the front and back of his body. Many of the wounds were deep and extended into vital organs.
After Price was killed, Knight skinned him and hung his skin from a meat hook on the architrave of a door in their lounge room. She then decapitated him and placed the head in a pot on the stove, baked flesh from his buttocks, and prepared vegetables and gravy to serve as a meal to his children, which was accompanied by vindictive notes from Knight. Police found the meal before the children arrived home.
Knight was arraigned on 2 February 2001 on the charge of murdering Price, to which she entered a plea of not guilty. Her trial was initially fixed for 23 July 2001 but was adjourned due to her counsel's illness. It was refixed for 15 October 2001. Three days later she was formally charged with the murder, to which she entered a guilty plea.
In June 2006, Knight appealed the life sentence, claiming that a penalty of life in jail was too severe for the killing. Justices Peter McClellan, Michael Adams and Megan Latham dismissed the appeal in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in September, with Justice McClellan writing in his judgement, "This was an appalling crime, almost beyond contemplation in a civilised society."
