Katherine Knight was the first woman in Australia to is the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole when she was convicted of the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in February 2000,
Born in 1955 what could a woman of 45 years old and a mother of 4 do to be handed this sentence in Court
To look at the dysfunctional life of Knight, you have to go way back into the past and review the life of her parents Barbara Roughan and Ken Knight.
Barbara Roughan whose maiden name was Thorley, was initially married to her husband Jack Roughan with whom she had four sons when she met and began an adulterous relationship with her husband's friend, Katherine's father Ken Knight.
Not a sin by today's standards but Barbara lived in the early 1950's with her family in an extremely conservative (little c) small town Aberdeen in New South Wales' Hunter Valley.
even according to the 2016 census Aberdeen is not a place one would describe as cosmopolitan. The Population, in 2016 states there are 1,894 people in Aberdeen.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 6.7% of the population.
86.7% of people were born in Australia and 90.4% of people only spoke English at home.
The most common responses for religion were Anglican 34.3%, Catholic 28.2% and No Religion 17.9%.
So it is no surprise that in such a small place the Roughan and Knight families were well and the affair caused a quite a scandal. Due to the locals ostracising Barbara for this she and Ken were forced to leave town and she left her husband and four sons behind, this resulted in the two youngest boys going to live in Sydney with an Aunt whilst the older boys remained with their Father.
So Barbara and Ken's relation did not get off to the best start but they settled down together eventually having two children and by the time Katherine Knight and her twin sister were born in 1955 the family were living in Tenterfield NWS Then when the twins were only 4 years old in 1959 Barbara's husband Jack Roughan died and the two eldest sons who remained with him when Barbara left, came to live with the Knight family.
Despite leaving her husband and children for Ken Knight Barbara found the grass was not always greener, Ken was an alcoholic and was known to be violent and abusive, he would often rape Barbara in front of the children which caused her to preach what can only be described as Misandry a hatred on men and boys to her daughters, she would overshare sexually explicit stories with them about intimate details of her relationship and sex life with their father and was unsympathetic to her daughter Katherine's claims she was being sexually abused.
Not long after the death of her husband Ken and Barbara returned to their home town of Aberdeen and Katherine attended Muswellbrook high school, she seemed to be a person of two halves, when she was happy she was known to be a model pupil, a loner, but she would receive awards for good behaviour and people described her as pleasant, but occasionally she could be driven into an uncontrollable rage and would bully younger children.
Katherine was by all accounts a pleasant girl who experienced uncontrollably murderous rages in response to minor upsets and is remembered by classmates as a bully who stood over smaller children. There was known to be an occasion where she assaulted at least one boy at school with a weapon and was once injured by a teacher who was found to have acted in self-defense.
That said despite attending school she never learned to read or write and at 15, she left school illiterate she sought work and her first job on leaving school was as a cutter in a clothing factory. She left that job about 1 year later to start what she told people was her "dream job", at the local abattoir a place where animals are butchered : SLAUGHTERHOUSE her first job there was cutting up offal but she excelled at the abattoir and was quickly promoted to boning and given her own set of butcher knives. In 1974 at the tender age of 18 Katherine began working at the local slaughterhouse, where her role was to decapitate the pigs.
Katherine took great interest in her job and would often wander over to start of the production line and watch the pigs actually having their throats cut. Other employees found her macabre interest a little strange but just assumed she was just looking at other areas of the job.
Even at this young age Knight showed signs of further troubling behaviour, such as hanging her work set of butcher knives over her bed and claiming she liked to keep them handy in case they were needed, this was a habit she continued throughout her life until she was arrested she was also well known about town to offering anyone who upset her armed combat to settle their differences. Possibly a sign of the trauma she had experienced at the hands of her parents and abusers
At aged 18 Knight met David Stanford Kellett, David was himself suffering from trauma he was known to be violent, often getting into fights, probably due to his alcoholism
Kellett had lost his job at the railroad due to his behaviour prior to working at the abattoir here he met the young Knight. At the railroad job he had found himself in two serious incidents which probably resulted in his turning to drink. The first when his best friend was killed in front of him in a shunting accident, and later when he rescued injured occupants of a school bus which had been struck by a train, killing six children.
So the two of them were known about town as a couple to avoid, often getting into fights where both would wade in, riding around on Kellet's motorcycle and basically making a show of themselves, but that did not stop them getting married not long after they met, unconventionally turning up drunk to their own wedding on kellet's motorbike with Knight riding and Kellett on the pillion.
Again like her parents marriage, the bliss was short lived, in fact only a few hours into their marriage Knight tried to strangle her new husband, the reasons, he had the audacity to fall asleep on their wedding night after only having sex three times! It did not stop there, Knight was known to be extremely violent and abusive to Kellett and even though she soon became pregnant that did not seem to slow her temper down.
when she was heavily pregnant she burned all of her husband's clothing .and shoes because he had arrived home late from a darts competition after reaching the finals. when he did arrive home she hit across the the head with a frying pan, he managed to escape to a neighbour's house where he collapsed and was treated in hospital for a fractured skull. Police wanted to charge her with this assault , but she managed to creep around her husband and talked him into dropping the charges.
in 1976 2 years into their marriage their daughter Melissa Ann was born and Kellett soon after left Knight for another woman escaping to Queensland claiming the violence and abuse he suffered just got too much for him.
At this point Knight turned he abusive tendencies onto the baby and after being seen acting violently with the baby she was admitted to St Elmo's Hospital in Tamworth, where she was diagnosed with postnatal depression and spent several weeks recovering.
After being released, Knight placed two-month-old Melissa on a railway line shortly before a train was due. She then stole an axe, went into town and threatened to kill several people. A vagrant known in the district as "Old Ted", who was foraging near the railway line, found and rescued Melissa, by all accounts only minutes before the train passed. Knight was arrested and again taken to St Elmo's Hospital, but, apparently she recovered and signed herself out the following day
The only a few days later, Knight slashed the face of a woman with one of her knives and demanded she drive her to Queensland to find Kellett. The woman escaped after they stopped at a service station, but by the time police arrived Knight had taken a young boy hostage and was threatening him with the knife.
She was disarmed when police attacked her with brooms and was admitted to the Morisset Psychiatric Hospital. Knight told the nurses she had intended to kill the mechanic at the service station because he had repaired Kellett's car, which had allowed him to leave, and then kill both her husband and his mother when she arrived in Queensland. When police informed Kellett of the incident, he left his girlfriend and moved to Aberdeen with his mother to support Knight.
Knight was released on 9 August 1976 into the care of her mother-in-law and, along with Kellett, moved to Ipswich, a city west of Brisbane, where she obtained a job at the Dinmore meatworks.
The relationship with Kellett continued and they went on to have a 2nd daughter in March 1983, who they named Natasha Maree. In 1984, Knight left Kellett and moved, first to her parent's house in Aberdeen, then to a rented house in nearby Muswellbrook. Although she returned to work at the abattoir, she injured her back the following year and went on a disability pension.
Knight met 38-year-old miner David Saunders in 1986. A few months later, he moved in with her and her daughters, He kept his old apartment though, and Katherine hated this – she’d fly into a jealous rage, regarding what he did when she was not around and would often throw him out. He would move back to his apartment, where she would invariably follow and beg him to return.
In May 1987, she cut the throat of his two-month-old dingo pup in front of him, for no more reason than as an example of what would happen if he ever had an affair, before going on to knock him unconscious with a frying pan.
In June 1988, she gave birth to a third daughter, Sarah, which prompted Saunders to put a deposit on a house; Knight paid off the deposit when her workers' compensation came through in 1989. Knight decorated the house throughout with animal skins, skulls, horns, rusty animal traps, leather jackets, old boots, machetes, rakes and pitchforks. No space, including the ceilings, was left uncovered.
Like the first David, David Saunders often got physically abused by Katherine Knight. David Saunders took a long service leave and went into hiding after a particularly violent fight where Katherine had smashed his face with an iron and stabbed him in the stomach with a pair of scissors. he moved back to Scone, but when he later returned home to Aberdeen, he found she had cut up all his clothes.
Knight tried to find him, but no one admitted to knowing his whereabouts. Several months later, Saunders returned to see his daughter and found that Knight had gone to the police and unjustly told them she was afraid of him. They issued her an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against him.
In the state of New South Wales, a court may grant an apprehended violence order (AVO) to a person who fears violence, harassment, abuse, or stalking. The order prohibits the defendant from assaulting, harassing, threatening, stalking, or intimidating the person seeking the order. Other conditions may be included, such as a prohibition against contacting the person or attempting to find the person online.
A court may issue the order if it believes a person has reasonable grounds for their fears or has no reasonable grounds for their fears. Non-compliance may result in the imposition of a fine, imprisonment, or both, and deportation.
So by the time Saunders left her she was unable to work bringing up three daughters to two different men and looking for her next relationship, this time she began a relationship with a former colleague from the abattoir John Chillingworth aged 43- and in 1990 Knight became pregnant for a forth time by John Chillingworth and gave birth the following year to a boy they named Eric. Their relationship lasted three years this relationship seems to have been fairly uneventful possibly because Knight had no reason to feel jealous of John as it was her in fact that was cheating in this relationship, and it resulted in her leaving John Chillingworth for another John , John Price.
John Price, known as Pricey was a single Dad he had divorced in 1988 - he had three children and the youngest lived with his ex wife whilst the two older children lived with him. Knight had four children three girls and a boy Everyone knew Pricey to be "terrific bloke" and was well liked by everyone who knew him,
Pricey was well aware of Knight's violent reputation around the area but nevertheless they moved in together, in fact she moved into his house in 1995. His children liked her, he was making a lot of money working in the local mines and, apart from violent arguments, at first "life was a bunch of roses".
In 1998 they had a fight over Price’s refusal to marry her and in retaliation Knight videotaped items he had stolen from work and sent the tape to his boss. Although the items were out of date medical kits that he had scavenged from the company rubbish tip, Price was fired from the job he had held for 17 years. That same day he kicked her out and she returned to her own home while news of what she had done spread through the town.
Still, it wasn’t the end for the two of them. John and Katherine were back together a few months later, though he still refused to marry her. The fighting became even more frequent and most of his friends would no longer have anything to do with him while they remained together. They fought constantly, with Katherine becoming more and more violent. In 2000, she stabbed John in the chest, and On 29 February Finally fed up, he kicked her out of his house. he stopped at the Scone Magistrate's Court on his way to work and took out a restraining order to keep her away from both him and his children.
It was the beginning of the end.
That afternoon Price told his co-workers that if he did not come into work the next day, it would be because Knight had killed him after he had been to Court about her.
He wasn’t wrong.
His co-workers begged him not to go home but he told them that he believed she would kill his children if he did not. Price arrived home to find that Knight, although not there herself, had sent the children away for a sleep-over at a friend's house.
He then spent the evening with his neighbours before going to bed at 11pm. On the night of February 29, 2000, Knight went to John’s apartment wearing new black lingerie she had bought earlier in the day and woke him up for sex. He had work the next day, so he went to sleep right after.
Unbeknown to him Knight had had a busy day of planning, not only had she bought the sexy underwear to tempt him with but she had videotaped all her children while making comments which have since been interpreted as a crude attempt at making a Will.
Once Price had rung the police Knight began planning his demise. She went out and bought a sexy black nightie for the evening, as well putting a butcher's knife in the bedroom.
Had Pricey not been so vocal in his comments to people about fears for his safety, he car being still on the drive at 6am the next morning probably would not have attracted to much attention, but everyone knew about Knight in town.
Seeing the car had not moved a neighbour became concerned and when Price did not arrive at work, his employer sent a co-worker around to the apartment to check on Pricey.
The concerned neighbour and colleague tried knocking on Price's bedroom window to wake him but after noticing blood on the front door alerted the police who arrived at 8am.
Breaking down the back door police found his body with Knight comatose from taking a large number of pills. She had stabbed Price with a butcher's knife while he was sleeping.
The crime scene was so horrific that several police officers actually quit, while some refused to eat meat for months.
The following account is the complete report by crime scene investigator Detective Senior Constable Peter Anthony Muscio who was the first officer into the premises after the initial discovery of John Price's body.
this is his report of the scene
"About 10am, Wednesday the 1st of March, 2000, in company with Detective Sergeant Neil Raymond, I attended the premises at 84 St Andrews Street, Aberdeen in relation to an alleged homicide. There I spoke to a number of police including duty officer Graham Furlonger, Detective Sergeant Bob Wells and Senior Constable Michael Prentice. The premises is a single storey, three bedroom dwelling which faces generally south onto St Andrew Street.
The premises was built towards the eastern side of the block leaving a grassed area on the western side where three vehicles were parked. These vehicles consisted of a white Toyota 4WD, a white Ford sedan and a white Toyota Landcruiser utility. There were two galvanised steel garn sheds in the rear yard, one at each rear corner. There was also a brick barbeque against the eastern boundary.
The dwelling had a full length verandah across the southern side and a smaller verandah central to the rear of the premises. My attention was drawn to a piece of cooked meat on the rear lawn in front of the white Ford sedan. I made an examination of this piece of meat and collected it for further testing. During my examination I took a series of photographs of the premises and the piece of cooked meat on the lawn.
I entered the premises to conduct a cursory examination with Detective Sgt Raymond. I walked in through the rear door and into the kitchen. Once inside the kitchen I saw a large section of what appeared to be human skin hanging from the top architrave of the doorway leading into the lounge room. This piece of skin extended from the top of the doorway right to the floor and appeared to be an entire human skin.
Looking through this doorway into the lounge room I could see a headless and skinless human body. I walked east along the hallway and looked into the entry foyer and saw an extreme amount of blood pooled on the floor. There was also a large amount of blood smearing over the eastern wall of the entry.
I walked further east along the hallway and noticed some blood staining leading from the main bedroom. In this bedroom I noticed more blood staining however only moderate amounts. I then left the scene and had a discussion with Sergeant Raymond and other investigating police outside the scene. I then re-entered the premises and made a more detailed examination.
The rear door of the premises opens into the laundry, off the western side of this is the kitchen dining room. The laundry contained a stainless steel tub in the north east corner and a washing machine further south along the eastern wall. There was a built-in cupboard in two separate wooden louvered doors in the southern wall of the laundry.
On the western wall of the laundry was a cavity sliding door that gave access to the dining room and kitchen. The room was divided into two sections with the kitchen being the western end and the dining room being the eastern end.
The dining room contained a wood and steel dining room table which had three matching seats placed around it. There were items of clothing draped over the backs of each of the three chairs. On the dining room table was a tool bag, some clothing, a small blue folder, an electronic toy gorilla and some prescription medicine boxes.
I noticed blood staining to the shoulder area of a blue shirt which was draped over the chair on the western side of the table.
The medication on the table consisted of three boxes of Felodur ER 5mg of which two were empty. This medication normally contains 2 strips of each containing 15 tablets, however there was only one full strip containing 15 tablets. There was also one empty box of Prinivil 20 tablets. An empty box of Dapa-Tabs was also on the table, this medication when full contains 90 tablets at 2.5mg. The fourth chair of the set was against the northern wall under the bench portion of the breakfast bar. I took a series of photographs of the dining room.
The kitchen was in the east portion of the room. It consisted of a kitchen bench with overhead cupboards along the eastern wall. About central to this bench was an electric cook top which had a baking dish and an aluminium boiler on it. Along the southern wall was a wall oven and further east was a two door built-in pantry and a free standing fridge.
Along the northern wall was another bench which incorporated the sink and further east was a breakfast bar that protruded from the northern wall south into the kitchen and divided the kitchen and dining room.
As mentioned earlier I saw what appeared to be a complete human skin or pelt hanging from the top architrave of the door separating the dining room and the lounge room.
On closer examination I could distinguish black curly hair at the top, a nose and part of the mouth and ear.
About halfway down the pelt I could see a clump of short black curly hair consistent with pubic hair. I could not recognise any other particular features as it continued to the floor.
The edges of the pelt were incised indicating to me that it had been removed with a sharp instrument. There were also a number of distinct stab wounds to the pelt, about a metre down from the top. The pelt was attached to the architrave by a stainless steel meat hook. The hook was pierced through the top of the head area of the pelt and then hooked over the architrave on the lounge room side of the door. The skin appeared to vary in thickness from approximately 1 to 4 centimetre's.
I noticed a blood trail leading from the lounge room into the kitchen towards the kitchen cook top in the vicinity of the aluminium boiler. The boiler was on the right side rear element, which was at the time turned off. When I lifted the lid to the boiler I noticed it was warm to touch.
The pot was full of liquid and on the surface I could identify a skinned human head and a number of cooked vegetables. On the northern side of the aluminium boiler I saw a baking dish which was sitting across the right front side element. Inside the baking dish I saw an amount of liquid and the remains of baked vegetables.
Just to the right or northern side of the cook top I saw two prepared meals. Each of the meals consisted of two pieces of cooked meat, baked potato, baked pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, yellow squash and gravy. Underneath each of the meals was a torn section of kitchen paper with a name written on it. The word "Beaky" was written in blue ink pen on one of the pieces while the word "Jonathon" was on the other. The pieces of meat appeared on the plates were similar to the piece I collected from the rear lawn.
On the section of the kitchen bench across the northern wall were a number of items of interest.
On the western end of the bench I saw a green electric jug with blood staining about the handle.
In the sink I saw an orange coloured vegetable peeler and the vegetable peelings from potato, pumpkin, zucchini and onion.
On the eastern side of the sink I saw a cream coloured microwave dish containing cooked cabbage leaves and a clearish liquid.
In front of the microwave dish I saw a brown coloured coffee cup that was sitting on a wooden cutting up board. Inside the coffee cup was a teaspoon and a small quantity of thick brown liquid similar to gravy.
There was also the residue of the gravy type substance on the cutting up board. Just to the right of the cutting up board was a yellow handled "Swibo" knife and two forks. The handle of the knife was blood stained.
On the eastern side of the breakfast bar I saw a small black handled knife which was blood stained and four empty medication blister packs. One blister pack was labeled "Luvox" and had 15 tablets missing, two blister packets labeled "Aropax" and had ten tablets missing from each packet and the blister packet labelled Promethazine had 20 tablets missing.
I saw a blood stained grey coffee cup which contained a white fatty substance. There was also an empty "Tooheys" brand beer stubby, a packet of Winfield red cigarettes and a black wallet belonging to the deceased on the bench.
On the western side of the breakfast bar I saw a "Norton" brand "bench stone" sharpening stone.
On the southern side of the cook top on the bench against the western wall of the kitchen was a microwave oven. In front of the microwave was the remains of a roll of paper towel and a blue plastic lid. This lid fitted on the microwave dish that was on the kitchen sink.
I also noted that the microwave door was open and the courtesy light was on. On the cork tiled floor of the kitchen at the south west corner of the kitchen bench I saw a blood stained bare footprint. This foot print was from a right foot of a person and at the time the person was standing adjacent to the kitchen bench with the right foot facing north.
I noticed blood staining to the fridge on both the handle of the door to the fridge section and the eastern side of the unit. The staining to the door handle contained some ridge structure and was in a position consistent with opening the door with bloodied hands.
There were also smears on the eastern face of the fridge, and lower down, staining from droplets of blood that had come in contact with this surface.
As mentioned earlier the lounge room was off the southern side of the kitchen/dining room, the two rooms being separated by a cavity sliding door. On the eastern side of the lounge room was an opening of 1.6m wide which gave the access to the front entry of the premises. The lounge room contained a single seat lounge chair in the south east corner and further west against that wall was a three seater lounge suite, and another single lounge seat in the south west corner. From this corner, north, against the western wall was a slow combustion heater and another single lounge chair. Along the northern wall from the north western corner was a large wooden display cabinet, a smaller display cabinet, the doorway to the kitchen/dining room and single lounge chair in the north eastern corner.
The skinless and headless body of a person now known to me as John Charles Price was in a supine position with his legs protruding into the entry foyer, from knees down. There was a substantial amount of blood smeared over the carpet around the body. As mentioned earlier there was also an extreme amount of blood pooling on the floor of the entry foyer. In this blood pool and staining were marks where the body of the deceased had been dragged about one metre from about the middle of the entry foyer onto the carpet in the lounge room. The deceased was laying on his back with his legs crossed at the feet, the left ankle was on top of the right. His left arm was extended and out from the body at an angle of about 45 degrees. Under the left wrist of this arm was an empty plastic 1.25 litre Shelleys Club Lemon Squash bottle. The right arm was also extended and lying alongside the body. On the floor, adjacent to the right arm of the deceased was a blood stained 31 cm yellow plastic handled knife. The blade of this knife was 17.5cm long.
The body was virtually devoid of skin and flesh, exposing the muscles and some organs. There were a number of wounds present on the body, one of the most obvious being a stab wound to the left side of the chest which extended into the chest cavity.
As stated the body had been skinned in a manner that leads me to believe that the person responsible would have had skill in this area. From the blood staining on the carpet I was able to determine that the deceased had been skinned prior to being decapitated. there was a definite outline of the head in the blood staining on the carpet. Examination of the neck region of the deceased indicated that the head had been removed very carefully and cleanly with a sharp instrument.
On the seat of the single lounge chair in the north east corner of the room (adjacent to the shoulders of the deceased) was a black handled honing steel (sharpening stone) and an opened packet of Winfield Blue cigarettes. I also noticed bloodied hand prints on the back and arms of this chair. On the northern wall on the western side of the door to the kitchen was a small display cabinet. Lying on this cabinet was a broken picture frame containing a picture of the deceased. Lying on top of the picture frame was a blood stained watch. To the west of the photograph, still on top of the cabinet, was a blood stained hand written note together with another broken picture on top of it. Apart from being blood stained it had small pieces of flesh on it.
According to the blood evidence, he awoke and tried to turn the light on before attempting to escape while Knight chased him through the house, he managed to open the front door and get outside but either stumbled back inside or was dragged back into the hallway where he finally died after bleeding out. Later, Knight went into Aberdeen and withdrew $1,000 from Price's bank account using a cash machine.
Price's autopsy revealed that he had been stabbed at least 37 times, in both the front and back of his body with many of the wounds extending into vital organs. Several hours after Price had died, Knight skinned him and hung the skin from a meat hook his head was cooking in a stew on the stove, The pot was still warm, estimated to be at between 40 and 50 degrees Celsius, indicating that the cooking had taken place in the early morning.
Knight had planned everything, the sexy undies the pills and the late night visit for sex she also made sure she had the right pots for his head and that her knives were sharp enough for the event. Even planning the murder and mutilation were a pleasurable feeling for the woman.
She had decapitated him and cooked parts of his body, serving up the meat with baked potato, pumpkin, courgette, cabbage, squash and gravy in two settings at the dinner table, along with notes beside each plate, each having the name of one of Price's children on it; she was preparing to serve his body parts to his children, Beck, Ross and John Jnr known as little John
A third meal was thrown on the back lawn and it can only be speculated that Knight had attempted to eat it herself but could not
Sometime later Knight had arranged the body with the left arm draped over an empty family sized soft drink bottle with the legs crossed. This was claimed in court to be an act of defilement demonstrating Knight’s contempt for Price.
Knight had also left a hand written note on top of a photograph of Price. Blood stained and covered with small pieces of flesh the note read:
Time got you back Johathon for rapping [raping] my douter [daughter]. You to Beck [Price's daughter] for Ross — for Little John [his son]. Now play with little Johns Dick John Price. (sic)
.Just to confirm her accusation obviously poorly spelled and written due to her illiteracy, was investigated by the police and was found to be totally without grounds
Knight's initially offered the Crown a Guilty please to manslaughter however the state rejected this and charged her with murder to which she entered a plea of not guilty. Her trial was initially fixed for 23 July 2001 but was adjourned due to an illness of her Defence Barrister and the Trial took place in October 2001.
A group of 60 people were up for Jury selection but following an offer by he Judge to be excused due to the nature of the photographic evidence which five accepted the pol reduced to 55 prospective Jurors.
When the witness list was read out to the prospects several more also dropped out as the area was so small and close knit conflicts were bound to arise
After this second round of drop outs a jury was selected.
Knight's Defence then spoke to the judge who adjourned to the following day; the next morning, Knight changed her plea to guilty, and the jury was dismissed. It was now made public that Justice O'Keefe had been advised of the plea change the day before.
He had adjourned the trial and then ordered a psychiatric assessment overnight to determine if Knight understood the consequences of a guilty plea and was fit to make such a plea. Knight's legal team had planned to defend Knight by claiming amnesia and dissociation, a claim supported by most psychiatrists although they did consider her sane.
No reason has ever been given for the guilty plea, and despite giving it, Knight still refused to accept responsibility for her actions. At the sentencing hearing, Knight's lawyers requested that Knight be excused to avoid hearing some of the facts, but the application was refused.
When Dr. Timothy Lyons took the stand and described the skinning and decapitation, Knight became hysterical and had to be sedated.
During the trial one of Australia's foremost criminal psychologists, Dr Milton was asked to discuss his findings after interviewing Knight. Dr Milton said that Knight suffered from borderline personality disorder, but knew exactly what she was doing on the evening of February, 2000.
Concluding the Newcastle Supreme court trial Justice O"Keefe stated
"Katherine Mary Knight, you have pleaded guilty and been convicted of the murder of John Charles Price at Aberdeen on or about February 29, 2000, in respect of your crime, I sentence you to imprisonment for life."
On 8 November, Justice O'Keefe pointed out that the nature of the crime and Knight's lack of remorse required a severe penalty; he sentenced her to life imprisonment, refused to fix a non-parole period and ordered that her papers be marked "never to be released", the first time that this had been imposed on a woman in Australian history.
"The last minutes of his (John Price) life must have been a time of abject terror for him as they were a time of utter enjoyment for her...she has not expressed any contrition or remorse and if released she poses a serious threat to the security of society."
Katherine Knight is the most notorious Australian female murderer of all time!
Justice O'Keefe
Knight was a not a woman to cross, ex-lovers and family members came forward at the murder trial to explain the violence that the woman was capable of. Knight's ex-husband told the packed court that Knight had one cut the throat of his eight-week-old puppy. Another time, she sent film of a stolen first aid kit to John Price's boss at work. Price's boss fired him for the theft immediately after seeing the footage.
Knight was portrayed as a vindictive and cruel woman, who harmed everyone who crossed her. Yet to look at her sitting in the dock during the trial many commented that she looked like anyone's mother. A meek and mild looking woman who hid the façade of a monster.
In June 2006, Knight appealed the life sentence, claiming that a penalty of life in jail without possibility of parole 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 civilized society."
"This was an appalling crime, almost beyond contemplation in a civilized society."
Justice McClellan
She’s currently serving her sentence at the Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre. To this day, she still claims innocence!
She maintains that she remembers nothing of the incident and that she committed no conscious crime. In prison Knight works as a cleaner in the governor's office. Although she is known to be a good cook, she does not work in the prison kitchen it can only be assumed they don't allow her access to knives and food preparation