Katherine Knight

Katherine Mary Knight (born 24 October 1955) is an Australian murderer and the first woman in the country's history to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She was convicted for the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in February 2000, and is currently imprisoned at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre in New South Wales. Knight stabbed Price to death, skinned him and then put his skin on a meat hook, which she had recently installed. She then cooked his head and parts of his body with the intention of feeding them to Price's children, but was stopped by police after an employee of his went to check on him after he had not been at work that day.

Early life and family Katherine Knight was born and raised in an unconventional and dysfunctional family environment. Her mother, Barbara Roughan (née Thorley; 1930–1986), had been married to Scottish-born John "Jack" Roughan and lived with him in the small town of Aberdeen in New South Wales' Hunter Valley. They had four sons before Barbara began an adulterous relationship with Kenneth "Ken" Charles Knight (1927–2009), a friend and co-worker of her then-husband.

The local backlash forced Barbara and Ken to move to Moree. None of her sons went with her; the two eldest boys continued to reside with their father and the two younger sons were sent to be raised by an aunt in Sydney. Barbara had four additional children with Ken, including twin girls born in 1955 in Tenterfield; Knight was one of these twin daughters. In 1959, when Knight was four years old, John Roughan died and his two older sons moved in with Barbara and Ken.

Ken was a violent alcoholic who would rape Barbara up to ten times per day. Barbara, in turn, often shared intimate details of her sex life with her daughters and expressed her hatred for sex and men. Later, when Knight complained to her mother about a sexual partner wanting her to engage in a sex act she did not wish to perform, Barbara advised her to endure it and stop complaining. Knight alleged she was frequently sexually assaulted by several members of her family, excluding her father, until she was aged 11. Although there are doubts regarding the specifics, psychiatrists accepted her allegations, and these events have been largely confirmed by other family members.

When she attended Muswellbrook high school, Knight became a loner and is remembered by classmates as a bully who stood over smaller pupils. She assaulted at least one boy at school with a weapon and was once injured by a teacher, who was subsequently found to have acted in self-defence. By contrast, when not in a rage, Knight was a model student and often earned awards for her good behaviour.

Knight left school at the age of 15, having not learned to read or write. She initially worked as a cutter in a clothing factory before moving on to what she described as her "dream job" at a local abattoir, where she began cutting up offal. She quickly advanced to boning and received her own set of butchers' knives. Knight kept these knives hung over her bed at home, stating that they would always be handy if needed, a practice she maintained until her incarceration. at her request. They arrived at the service on her motorcycle, with Kellett appearing quite intoxicated on the pillion. Upon their arrival, Knight's mother, Barbara, offered Kellett some stern advice about his new wife. Barbara warned Kellett to be cautious, stating that upsetting Knight or cheating on her could lead to serious consequences, noting that Knight had a volatile behaviour. On their wedding night, Knight attempted to strangle Kellett, later explaining that it was due to him falling asleep after they had intercourse only three times. (4 April 1955 – 1 March 2000) was the father of three children when he began his affair with Knight. Reputedly a "terrific bloke" liked by everyone who knew him, his own marriage had ended in 1988. While his two-year-old daughter had remained with his former wife, the two older children lived with him. Price was aware of Knight's violent reputation when she moved into his house in 1995. However, 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, Knight and Price fought over his refusal to marry her. In retaliation, she videotaped items he had allegedly 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 seventeen years. That same day, he kicked her out and she returned to her own home while news of what she had done spread throughout the town. A few months later, Price restarted the relationship, although he now refused to allow her to move in with him. The fighting became even more frequent, and most of his friends would no longer have anything to do with him while they remained together. She then decapitated Price and cooked parts of his body, serving up the flesh with baked potato, carrot, pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, cabbage, yellow squash and gravy in two settings at the dinner table, along with a note beside each plate, each bearing the name of one of Price's two children, suggesting preparations for serving him to his children as a meal. A third meal was thrown on the back lawn for unknown reasons, and it is speculated that Knight had attempted to eat it but could not. This has been put forward in support of her claim that she has no memory of the crime. Price's head was found in a pot with vegetables. The pot was still warm, estimated to be at between , indicating that the cooking had taken place in the early morning. Sometime later, Knight arranged the body with the left arm draped over an empty 1.25-litre 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 left a handwritten note on top of a photograph of Price. Bloodstained and covered with small pieces of flesh, it read:

In June 2006, Knight appealed her life sentence, arguing that the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole was too severe for the crime. Justices Peter McClellan, Michael Adams and Megan Latham dismissed the appeal in September at the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal. Justice McClellan stated that the crime was appalling and nearly unimaginable in a civilized society.

Prison Knight has been reported to have taken a leadership role among prisoners at Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre and a mediator of disputes. It was reported in July 2017 that to that point she did not have a record of violence in prison and hadn't received any prison charges.