Casefile True Crime - Case 12: Katherine Knight

Episode Date: March 26, 2016

The crime scene was described as looking more like the set of a horror movie, than real life. It is one of the most horrific crimes ever committed. Not only did it shock the small town of Aberdeen in country NSW, where the crime occurred, it shocked the entire nation of Australia and parts of the world. What could possibly drive somebody to do this? A psychiatric illness? Or premeditated, pre-planned, pure evil? For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-12-katherine-knight

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The crime scene was described as looking more like the set of a horror movie than real life. It was one of the most horrific crimes ever committed. Not only did it shock the small town of Aberdeen in country New South Wales, it shocked the entire nation, even parts of the world. What could possibly drive somebody to do this? A psychiatric illness? Or premeditated, preplanned, pure evil? Catherine Knight was born on the 24th of October 1955.

She is a non-identical twin. Catherine was the more feminine of the twins. She liked to help her mum around the house, assist with the cooking and cleaning, and liked playing with the dolls. Cathy Knight's parents were Ken Knight and Barbara Knight, who married each other in 1952. Cathy's father left school at the age of 14 to work at the Abattoir in Aberdeen, country New South Wales, where he lived at the time. He later met Barbara and married her.

They moved to Queensland and to various parts of New South Wales, where Ken continued to work as a slaughterman at the Abattoirs. He was considered excellent at his job and a very hard worker. Barbara had a short fuse temper. She was hot-headed and loved using excessive foul language. Barbara and Ken were in a strict household. The kids did as I was told, there was no mucking about. There were six kids in the house altogether, including Cathy.

After moving around to various parts of the state and in estate, they finally settled back in Aberdeen in 1969. Aberdeen is a small country town located in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, about 240 kilometres, which is about 150 miles north of Sydney. The main source of employment for the people of Aberdeen at the time was the local Abattoir. There wasn't much else going on in the small country town that had a population of about 1,500 people. As a kid, Cathy wasn't allowed to have pets, but she loved animals. If she came across an injured animal like a bird with an injured wing,

she would bring it home and look after it until it was better. From a young age, she showed that she had a fiery temper. On bus rides to and from school, some of the boys used to torment her and give her a hard time. But Cathy Knight could look after herself. She was involved in more than one fistfight with the boys at school, and she could more than hold her own. It's likely Cathy inherited her fiery temper and love of fair language from her mother Barbara. Cathy left school at the age of 15.

She had achieved only a bare minimum level of reading and writing skills. There was only one thing she wanted to do when she left school, following her father's footsteps and work at the Aberdeen Abattoir. Her first application was rejected, but she applied again in 1971, and she was successful the second time. She was 16 years old when she started work. Cathy started as a general labourer, mopping up the blood and cleaning up the animal flesh and carcasses.

She then moved her way up to become a slicer, which she enjoyed immensely. She loved her job and she was very good at it. She was very efficient and precise with a knife. Cathy took pride in her knives. She always kept them in top condition. As she grew older, Cathy was described as generally kind-natured and helpful, with a heart of gold. She was average-looking, tall, slim, with red hair, and she wore glasses. She liked to make her own clothes. She was good at knitting. She played bingo.

There was nothing spectacular about her at all. But there was a dark side to Cathy. A very dark side. There was her fiery temper, constant use of foul language, and dark, violent behaviour. Cathy was somebody you didn't want to get on the wrong side of. She was as vindictive as anyone could be. If you did the wrong thing by Cathy,

she would do everything in her power to get you back ten times worse. It was whilst working at the Aberdeen Abattoir in 1973 that Cathy met her first husband, David Kelly. It was a quick romance and they quickly got married. It wasn't much of a wedding. They hopped on a motorbike together, rode to the local registry office, which was in a nearby town called Musselbrook, and then they celebrated the wedding with friends at a local pub.

Cathy was 18 at the time. It didn't take long for David to get his first taste of the dark side of Cathy. It was that night, actually. David had drunk excessively all day and he was struggling to perform to Cathy's liking in the bedroom. When he fell asleep, she woke him up by putting her hands around his neck and strangling him. Cathy let David know she wasn't happy.

Despite this incident, the marriage actually started out quite well. That kind natured, helpful, hard of gold version of Cathy couldn't have been happier. But after about a year, things started to turn sour. Cathy's temper and mood swings started to take off and things got worse and worse and gradually turned very violent. By the time Cathy had given birth to their first daughter, Melissa, David had had enough and he took off to Queensland with another woman,

who also happened to be pregnant to him. It was 1976. This left Cathy feeling crushed and heartbroken. But also furious. She decided to take her anger out on their daughter, Melissa. She walked down to the local railway tracks and left Melissa right in the middle of them. A local man happened to walk past at the right time

and saw Melissa on the tracks. He quickly ran down and saved her. A train came through not long after that. Later that day, Cathy picked up an axe and started swinging it around, threatening numerous people. Police were called and they took her to a local hospital for a mental health assessment. But she was released soon after.

Only a few days later, on the 3rd of August, 1976, Cathy went to the house of one of her co-workers, Molly Perry. She asked Molly for help, telling her that Melissa was sick and she needed a lift to the doctors. Molly was only too happy to help her out and together with her mother and younger brother, she put Cathy in the car to drive her to the doctors. But Melissa wasn't sick at all.

Soon after getting in Molly's car, Cathy pulled out a butcher's knife and held it up to Molly, slashing her on the cheek. She demanded that Molly drive her to Coffs Harbour, which is about a six-hour drive away. Coffs Harbour is where David Kellett's mother, Jean, lived. Cathy later admitted her plan was to ask Jean why David left her, then kill her,

and then commit suicide. Instead, though, Molly drove to a nearby service station to try and get help. Cathy got out of the car, dragging Molly's younger brother out with her, holding the knife up to him. The police were called and quickly arrived. They were able to disarm Cathy using broomsticks.

One of the officers received a small cut in the struggle. Again, Cathy was taken to hospital for a psychiatric assessment. While Cathy was being treated in hospital, Melissa was looked after by Cathy's parents, Barbara and Ken. Cathy was diagnosed with a personality disorder. When suffering from personality disorder, a person can be loving and caring one minute before losing complete control

and being capable of dangerous, violent behaviour the next minute. David Kellett was still up in Queensland at the time when he got a call from police about the incident. He returned home and visited Cathy in hospital with his mother, Jean. A hearing was held in hospital on the 9th of August, 1976, and it was decided Cathy could be released into the care of Jean and David. This was only six days after the incident. Jean and David were given strict instructions

to make sure Cathy took all of her medication. It didn't take long for another violent incident to happen. Actually, it happened pretty much straight away. As soon as they left the hospital, they drove to Cathy's parents' house to pick up Melissa. As soon as they got there, Barbara stormed out of the house and attacked David. She grabbed him around the throat and screamed at him, blaming him for Cathy's breakdown.

Cathy responded by getting out of the car, walking out to Barbara and punching her in the face, knocking her to the ground. Cathy then stood over Barbara and screamed, Don't ever touch David again. After this, David and Cathy got back together. They moved to Queensland together and Cathy got a job as a meat slicer in an abattoir up there.

Cathy was in love with her knives. So much so, she asked David to mount them for her so she could keep them in the bedroom, just in case she needed them. But it didn't take long for the relationship problems to strike again. Cathy's mood and temper was still there. She was controlling and demanding and couldn't let David's affair go.

There were plenty of arguments between them and a lot of them were physical. Cathy was the reason they were physical. She attacked David with punches and kitchen pots and frying pans and anything else she could get her hands on. Cathy also had an affair with a co-worker from the abattoir where she worked. It was payback for David's affair. David actually walked in on them in bed together.

But regardless, he still wanted to try and make the marriage work and not long after, him and Cathy had another baby, their second daughter, Natasha. Cathy would do things like tell David to go to the pub, have a few beers, but then ring the pub and demand him to come home immediately. One night when he arrived home from the pub much later than she wanted, she whacked him over the head with a frying pan

as soon as he walked through the door. It put David in hospital, but he didn't press charges. Not long after that, during another argument, Cathy held a knife up to David's throat. And another night when Cathy wasn't happy with David, she poured petrol all over his clothes and set them on fire. Cathy's behaviour was troubling and becoming increasingly more violent. Barbara Knight actually warned David at one time,

don't play up on her, she'll kill you. Finally, in 1983, Cathy again whacked David over the head, splitting him open, put him in hospital yet again. But that was finally the end. David again didn't press charges, but he called the marriage off once and for all.

Cathy responded by cleaning the house out. She took everything, including the curtains and the light bulbs. But David couldn't have cared less. He was happy and grateful it was finally over, thinking there must be a God looking out for him somewhere. Cathy moved back to her parents' farm in Aberdeen with their two daughters, Melissa and Natasha. Cathy returned to work at the Aberdeen Abattoir

back to her role as a meat slicer. But in 1984, she heard it back. She never fully recovered and her employment at the Abattoir was terminated. It wasn't long before Cathy was in another relationship, this time with David Saunders, who she met at the Aberdeen Bowling Club. Just like her relationship with David Kellett,

her relationship with Saunders started off great. Both couldn't have been happier. But that dark side that lurked in Cathy was ever present, just waiting to come to the surface. One day, out of nowhere, Cathy snapped and started accusing Saunders of cheating on her. Her unpredictable violent behaviour made its first appearance. And it would go on like that for the next three years, on and off.

Cathy would be lovely and calm one day, unpredictable and violent the next. During one of their arguments, Cathy grabbed a knife and went out into the backyard and killed Saunders' dog. She slit its throat. She says she did this in retaliation for Saunders kicking her in the stomach when she told him she was pregnant.

Saunders strongly denies this, and he says he never touched her. He says she just went out in the backyard for no reason, started going off on one of her violent tangents, started making accusations about him, and then slipped his dog's throat. Soon after that, Cathy took an overdose of pills and had to be rushed to the hospital.

Cathy always maintained it was Saunders who was the violent one towards her, and she would only act out in self-defense and at times revenge, but Saunders always denied this. Despite the extreme ups and downs of the relationship, they ended up having a daughter together in 1988. In 1989, Cathy received a compensation payout

for her back injury, $15,000 in total. She used the money to pay off the house that her and Saunders were living in, effectively making it her house. Not long after that, the relationship hit rock bottom. Several more serious arguments occurred, and Cathy was even issued a restraining order against Saunders,

although Saunders maintained it was he who should have had the order against her. And it was proven right when Cathy stabbed him in the stomach with a pair of scissors during yet another violent argument. It wasn't a serious injury, it didn't even require medical attention, but it was enough to convince Saunders it was over. But it didn't remain over for long.

They got back together soon after to give the relationship another go. But after several more violent arguments and Cathy cutting up and throwing out all of Saunders' clothes, the relationship finally ended for good. Meanwhile, anything David Kellett would send to his girls like Christmas presents, birthday cards, flowers, etc. Cathy wouldn't give to them. She would throw them out before the girls ever saw them.

She would then tell the girls their dad never sent them anything. After the relationship ended with Saunders, Cathy soon entered another relationship with John Chillingworth. Cathy didn't like to be alone. She always had to have someone and never took a long to find a new partner. Just like past relationships, the early days were brilliant. Chillingworth says Cathy was terrific to be with.

He thought he had found the perfect soulmate. They met at the Aberdeen Abattoir 20 years earlier when Cathy had just started working there as a 16-year-old. But nothing happened between them then, and Chillingworth ended up moving away and got married. Chillingworth had only recently just returned to the area, and that's when he met Cathy again. As Chillingworth had been out of the area for a long time,

he wasn't familiar with what were by now the legendary Cathy night stories. His mates quickly fuelled him in, but Chillingworth didn't care. He was convinced Cathy was the one for him. And not long into their relationship, Cathy felt pregnant with their first child, Cathy's fourth in all.

After this, Cathy's true colours started to shine, and the arguments and violent behaviour started. After one fight, she went and spent a night with her ex, David Saunders, and she couldn't wait to rub it in Chillingworth's face. There were also issues between Cathy's elder store to Melissa and Chillingworth. Melissa didn't think much of him, and the feeling was pretty much mutual. Chillingworth actually admitted that he hit Melissa on one occasion. He says he immediately regretted it.

Cathy made sure to take revenge on Chillingworth for hitting Melissa. She smashed his false teeth. When he had a go at her over this, she responded by smashing his second pair of false teeth. Just like past relationships, one minute it was on and all was good, the next minute it was off and was filled with violence. Cathy gave birth to their son in 1991. Not long after their son's birth,

Cathy and Chillingworth got into a physical fight, and Chillingworth was charged with assault. Cathy also got a restraining order taken out against him. They separated, but it didn't last long. They soon got back together. But Cathy didn't withdraw the assault charge. They ended up going to court together that day. John was put on a good behaviour bond and given a fine.

They then went home together. John was a heavy drinker which contributed to the relationship problems. But he actually did quit, and he went on to help with the Salvation Army and drug and alcohol counselling. It was through them in 1993 that he got a job opportunity in Queensland for two weeks. He took the job, but he liked Queensland so much that he ended up staying. His initial intention was to have Cathy and the kids move up there. But when Cathy went up to visit him,

another massive fight between them put an end to the relationship for good. Chillingworth didn't know it at the time, but Cathy had already started seeing a new man, John Price. By now, Cathy had been unemployed for eight years, getting by with her compensation payout and a fortnightly government pension. She had four kids to three fathers. The eldest was aged 17, the youngest was aged two. John Price was born on the 4th of April, 1955.

He was the eldest of six children. John Price had a limited education. When he left school at the age of 14, he could barely read and write. But he was a hard worker. He worked in heavy machinery, earth-moving equipment, trucking and mining. John married his wife Colleen and they had three children together, a son and two daughters. Tragedy struck John Price's family when his father and brother became involved

in a heated domestic dispute. His father picked up a gun and started to load it, so John's brother picked up a gun and tried to fire a warning shot at him. Unfortunately, he accidentally shot their mother. The death was ruled accidental and John's brother was charged with manslaughter. The loss of his mother devastated John. He looked for a job opportunity elsewhere so he could move away and he found one. Together with his wife Colleen and kids, they moved to Aberdeen in 1981.

John was described as an easygoing, likeable character who got on with everybody he met. He had a laid back, carefree nature. He would do anything for anyone and never expect anything in return. He worked hard and loved to unwind with a beer with his mates at the end of a hard day. In 1988, he split up with his wife Colleen. They had been married for 15 years. It wasn't a bitter separation at all. To show what kind of person John was, after they had separated,

Colleen asked him to borrow money to fix a fridge. Instead, he bought her a brand new fridge. Another time when he found out Colleen was going on holidays, he slipped $500 into a bank account without her knowing. John was a regular at the Aberdeen Hotel, known to locals as the Toppub. It was one of two pubs in Aberdeen. It was known as the Toppub as it sat on the top of the hill.

The other pub in town was known as the Bottompub. I'm sure you can work that out. And it was at the Toppub where John Price met Cathy Knight. Cathy fell madly in love with John and she was determined to make the relationship last. She was sick of her failed relationships. She wanted this one to be forever. Cathy and John struck up a conversation and that was that. They became an item very quickly.

And the common theme throughout Cathy's relationships continued. The first few months were described as fantastic. Both of them were very happy together. It took about a year for the first major arguments to begin. And they went on and on from there. For no reason, Cathy became deeply paranoid that John was cheating on her. It seems that when David Kellett cheated on her back in her first marriage, it convinced Cathy that all her future partners were going to cheat on her.

Despite a few hiccups, Cathy eventually moved into John Price's house. But he wouldn't marry her. And this was a new sticking point in their relationship. John said he loved Cathy, but he wanted to make sure his children got his house. He didn't want Cathy to be entitled to any of it. That's the main reason he said that he wouldn't marry her. Slowly but surely the arguments escalated from verbal and turned physical. The relationship started to deteriorate.

It didn't help when John would occasionally slip up and call Cathy his ex-wife's name, Colleen. Worrying signs started to appear. Cathy mentioned several times that she would kill John. But everyone, including John, just shrugged it off as meaningless threats. During one argument she said to John, you'll never get me out of this house. I'll do you in first. But as time went on, Cathy could sense the relationship was starting to slip away.

And that made her furious. In 1998, she started secretly filming items in John's house. She alleges he stole from the mine where he worked at the time. Ridiculous things, like a can of bug spray, an old first aid kit that had expired, things like that. Cathy said she did this as John used to hit her. And she made the video to hold it over John, that if he ever touched her again, she would send the videos to his boss.

But the truth was, John had told Cathy he wanted her out of his house. And it was now time for Cathy to get her revenge. Most of the stuff on the video hadn't been stolen from the mine at all. And what had been taken from the mine was old discarded junk that would have been thrown out anyway, including the old first aid kit. Cathy sent the video to John's bosses at the mine, and after they viewed it, she invited them into John's house and pointed out all of the items to them in person.

The first aid kit was the downfall. Even though it was out of date and they could prove it was out of date, and it was going to be thrown out anyway, the mine sacked John. 17 years of service gone, just like that. He had worked hard over the years to put himself in a position that earned him $100,000 a year, and now it was all gone. John immediately kicked Cathy out of his house. But unbelievably, it didn't last.

It wasn't long before John became lonely. He started blaming himself for what had happened. His mates couldn't believe what they were hearing, but a few months later, John and Cathy were back together. But this time, she didn't move back into John's house. Still, his decision to get back with Cathy actually cost John some friendships, and it caused drama with his son Jonathan, who already hated Cathy before she got John sacked,

and now he hated her even more. When they were discussing getting back together, Cathy told John, if you take me back, this time it's to the death. It wasn't long before the argument started again, and they increased in violence. Most of the fights this time were over John losing his job at the mine, but John did go on to get another job. Cathy was also starting to cause trouble with John s youngest daughter.

She lived with her mother Colleen, but visited John and Cathy regularly. John s son and eldest daughter had moved out of home and had their own families. Cathy s two eldest daughters, Melissa and Natasha, had also moved out of home. But her two youngest kids still lived with her. Cathy started telling John s youngest daughter things like John wasn't really her dad, and other nasty, spiteful things like that. When John confronted her about it, Cathy was doing the dishes. So she lunged at him with a knife.

Cathy stabbed him in the upper left chest. John didn't seek treatment, he just put a bandaid on it, and never reported it to police. The stab wound left a permanent scar. Towards the end of 1999, Cathy enlisted the help of her nephew, and instructed him to steal John s car, which was worth about $20,000, but it was uninsured. She told her nephew to burn it.

She offered to pay him $500 to do it. Not satisfied with hurting him financially, Cathy later asked her nephew to throw battery acid on his face. Her nephew refused both requests. Cathy later said to her older brother, I'm going to kill Pricey, and I'm going to get away with it. I'll get away with it because I'll make out I'm mad. Meanwhile, John Price desperately wanted to end the relationship with Cathy for a second time.

But he couldn't work out how. There was just no way that he could see for a peaceful separation. He was also worried that Cathy might start to target his children if he ended it. During the afternoon of February 27, the year 2000, another physical fight occurred. During the fight, John thought Cathy went for a knife. Having already been stabbed by her before, he took off and sought refuge at her neighbor's house.

John called the police. He had scratches all over him from the fight. But Cathy had bruises as well. John told the police he wanted Cathy out of his house. She had her own place in town where she could go and stay. They told him there was nothing they could do and he would need a court order. By now, the relationship had been going for six years, on and off. There had been great highs and dark lows.

And that night, as had happened many times before, they made up after the argument and John went to bed. At 2.30am the next morning, Monday the 28th of February, John woke up startled. He could make out the silhouette of Cathy standing over him at the bed. Her arms were behind her back. He jumped out of bed frightened Cathy had a knife. But she didn't.

John went to work that day. He recounted the last day's events to his workmates. They had never seen him so distressed. He said he thought he was a dead man when he woke up to see Cathy standing over him with her hands behind her back that morning. His boss offered John to go and stay with him for a while. But he refused. That night John returned home and actually had a civil discussion with Cathy.

They agreed they couldn't go on the way they were. But Cathy again refused to leave his house. That night the police arrived with the restraining order which they served on John. They took the order out as a result of the fight the night before. The 29th of February the year 2000 began like most other days. Cathy woke up early and got John organised for work. She cooked him breakfast and made his lunch. John went to work and got permission of his boss to go to the local courthouse

to apply for his own restraining order against Cathy. Meanwhile Cathy went and saw her solicitor and dropped in on a few old friends showing them the bruises she had after the fight with John. Two nights ago she told one of her friends that bastard is not going to get away with this. I'm going to bloody get him. She made an appointment with her doctor and had the injuries recorded. John saw the chamber magistrate at Musselbrook courthouse around lunchtime.

He explained the relationship issues he and Cathy had including all the violent incidents. He said he wanted to stop Cathy from being able to enter his house. After telling his story the chamber magistrate issued a restraining order against Cathy. That night John made his way to the top pub. Cathy took her children out for dinner. After dinner she asked Natasha if her two youngest children could stay the night at her house. Natasha agreed. Natasha being Cathy's second oldest child if you forgot.

John made his way home about 9.30pm. Cathy arrived at his place about 11pm. She had a key to John's house and let herself in. But there was no fighting, no arguing. John didn't tell Cathy to leave. Instead they had sex. The restraining orders were just words and a piece of paper at that point. The next morning John didn't chart for work.

Something he never did. He always turned up for work. He was reliable. He hadn't called in or let anyone know he was running late. People from work tried ringing him numerous times but they couldn't get a hold of him. They even called the police to see if there had been any car accidents that morning. But they hadn't. As he was leaving for work one of John's neighbours spotted John's car still parked out the front of his house.

That was unusual. John always left for work before him. His car was never there at that time. John's work colleagues decided they better call the police. Police arrived at John's house at about 10 past eight that morning. Two of the first officers on the scene were Officer Matthews. I was actually working at Musclebrook that day and received a phone call at the station from a workmate of Mr Price's. And Officer Furlonga.

I got the call from his boss saying that he hadn't come in and somebody had been out there and that you'd been still in the driveway and they couldn't raise anybody. You know, not thinking the worst, we were just thinking, oh yeah, he's probably died one on or something. It hasn't woken up. I knew Mr Price before. I knew that he was a hard worker and a reliable man, so it was a bit unusual for him not to turn up to work and not to make a phone call. I went up, knocked on the door, didn't get an answer, saw some blood on the door handle, looked for a little gap into the lounge room which was dark, reasonably dark, and saw what looked like a bunched up curtain hanging down. I couldn't raise anybody so I decided to go and break into the place seeing as we had this complaint.

Walked around the side, there was some meat lying on the ground. Anyway, went round the back, broke in through the door. As we went in I saw straight ahead what I thought was a curtain. There was something hanging, blocking my entry into the hallway of the house. I thought it looked like some type of blanket or some sort of covering that had been placed up on the archway. So I remember I used my left hand to push it aside and immediately I could feel coldness coming on my left arm. So I looked down and my left arm was just covered in blood. Initially I thought I'd injure myself breaking through the back door.

I couldn't understand why my arm was bleeding. I realised then it was a human pelt, it was a skin, minus the head. The full skin just hanging from the top door frame. I looked past it, sort of torso on the ground without a head, without any genitalia, and my first reaction then was to turn around to Scotty and say, don't look Scotty. Of course that's the worst thing you can say. I could look through from there into the lounge room and I saw what appeared to be a human being or what was left.

And so it was at that point that I realised what had happened. For something that I'd never seen before, I'd never experienced. I had an immediate idea of what had gone on. It was at that point I drew my service pistol. There was blood everywhere, a lot of blood out from the door into the kitchen area. There's a pot on the stove. I think I might have even said to Scotty, I'll give you one guess where the head is. On the table there was a couple of plates that had meals prepared, vegetables and meat cooked sitting there.

Sergeant Furlonga was talking to me saying it's going to be alright, we've got to keep going, we've got to finish this, we've got to do whatever it takes. He was talking to me and I was trying to hear if I could hear anybody else, because sometimes a little bit under stress, you get that auditory exclusion and you're not hearing things. You're just focused on the threat. It was quite a frightening experience, but once you've stepped into that situation, there's just no backing out. So we went to search the place and we went up the hallway. We heard what appeared to be someone snoring coming from one of the bedrooms.

So we knew there was someone alive in the house. Looked in there and there she was lying on the bed, tried to wake her. She was obviously drugged on something and couldn't wake her properly, she was very groggy. She wasn't responding, so we carried her outside and put her onto the back lawn. I wasn't sure if she had tried to kill herself with sleeping pills or whatever, but she certainly wasn't injured in any way. They handcuffed Kathy and tried to question her, but they couldn't get any sense out of her. There were some empty blister packs located and they worked out Kathy had tried to kill herself by overdosing on tablets. And the ambulance was called until she was taken to hospital, where she was kept in the psychiatric ward.

Obviously, police had great fears for Kathy's youngest children. After a frantic period of searching, they managed to locate them safe and well at Natasha's house. Crime scene officer Peter Masio was then called to examine the scene. I got a phone call from VKG, which is police radio, telling us there had been a murder. I said to the operator, well how do you know it's a murder? And they said, well, he's been decapitated. We came in through the laundry at the back of the premises and there was an aroma and it was, well, it's quite a macabre thing. It was a sweet odor, a nice odor, as if mum was cooking a stew. Walk inside and one of the first things you see is Mr Price's skin or pelt hanging from the door from a meat hook.

I searched through the pelt for Mr Price's genitals. Further into the kitchen, you could see bloodstaining on certain items and into the lounge room, there was a body. Further down the hallway, there was bloodstaining going into the bedrooms. You could see where I think Mr Price had gone for a light switch. There was bloodstaining on the light switch and also blood that he has coughed or something on the wall. You could see the expiration mark on it. But as you go out towards the lounge room, these blood stains are getting heavier and heavier. There's big swipes where his blood soaked himself and sliding against the wall.

They're also getting lower. It comes to a combination at the foyer where he's just succumbed to his injuries. He's actually opened the front door and there's blood splatter on the screen, so he's nearly made it out. Not that it would have helped him. He would have died, certainly. You just see the enormity of where it starts in the bedroom and progressively gets worse and worse. Do you get to that point where he's died? The blood pool was the width of the hallway, which was 1.2 metres wide. When we examined the body, you could see the body has been there in its entirety.

There's a big stain on the floor where the head would have been. It's been skinned first. You can see it. She placed the skin on the carpet to sit it there and it's quite substantial staining. There's also an outline of the head, so she's taken the head off there. You can see that she's walked in carrying it into the kitchen. There's this drip, drip, drip of blood all the way leading to the cooktop. But until we actually lifted the lid off, it wasn't confirmed. To me, it was a statement. She had cut the gluteus maximus off his backside.

It's a big muscle and she's cut that into five different steaks and she's cooked them, baked them in the oven. Two of them were on one plate, two on another plate and the fifth was out for the dog, I believe. It wasn't touched. But the meals, they were like a trophy and they had the names of each person who was supposed to get them. There were two prepared meals on the table, complete with meat and vegetables. A piece of paper was placed next to each meal. A name was scribbled on each piece of paper. One was for John's son, the other for his youngest daughter.

Officer Masio then examined the rest of the scene and collected all of the evidence. It didn't take long for news of the murder to spread. There were a few, I told you so's, and I knew she was capable of that amongst the Aberdeen community. During the course of their investigation, police found that after Cathy had murdered John, she cleaned herself up and drove into town and withdrew $1,000 from his bank account. To this day, it's unknown what she did with that money. Cathy was charged with the murder of John Price in a special bedside sitting in the psychiatric ward of the hospital she was being held in on the 7th of March, 2000.

When interviewed by police, she denied having any knowledge about John's death, although she did admit she was responsible for his death. She claimed she had amnesia and couldn't remember how it happened. It became clear to police after speaking with Cathy that she was intending to mount a defence of battered wife syndrome, that she had committed the crime due to years of being the victim of severe domestic violence. Police got to work investigating that angle, and as you've already heard, they quickly realised that yes,

Cathy had been in some extremely violent relationships, but she was the cause of that violence. She wasn't the victim of it. Cathy was examined by numerous psychiatrists. They determined yes, Cathy suffered from personality disorder. But a personality disorder is not actually considered a psych illness. They found Cathy's violence and rages were just part of her nature, part of her makeup. She got a sick sense of enjoyment out of what she did.

Cathy's claims that she couldn't remember anything about the crime were dismissed. She was basically putting on a show. It was found that her actions were premeditated and the timing was planned. She knew exactly what she was doing. She wasn't suffering from a psychiatric illness at all. She was just pure evil. Cathy initially pled not guilty and her trial started on the 15th of October 2001. The judge assigned to the case was the Honourable Barry O'Keefe.

At no time as either a barrister or as a judge, did I ever strike anything of the horrific nature of Catherine Mary Knight's case. She pleaded not guilty and the trial began in the conventional way. She sat in the dock, she was quite small, unimpressive. In a crowd you'd certainly never notice her. Before the trial got going, Cathy surprised everyone and changed the plea to guilty. I was somewhat nervous about this because I was concerned that if I took a guilty plea, sentenced her, she would then appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal

and say she was insane at the time that she made the plea of guilty. I decided that I should get a court expert to examine her and the psychiatrist came to exactly the same conclusion as the other psychiatrist that had seen it. Namely that she was not insane, she was quite sane, but she was a bad woman. Throughout the whole of the evidence, it didn't matter what the witness said, she didn't look at the witness. It didn't matter what the photograph or video was, she didn't look at that.

She sat looking straight ahead, absolutely impassive. There was never a sign on her face of any reaction to any of the evidence. At one point during the sentencing hearing, when some of the graphic details were being presented to the court, Cathy broke down. She started rocking violently back and forth and started screaming. She came down to the floor and started threshing about, but she wasn't fooling anybody.

When she wanted an adjournment, she manipulated her behaviour so that she got it. Thereafter, she resumed the same man that she had before, but I didn't think that she'd switched off. In sentencing, the judge found that Cathy's suicide attempt wasn't a genuine attempt. He didn't believe that she couldn't remember anything about the crime. He determined she knew exactly what she was doing. She acted with planning and premeditation. She had openly said many times she was going to kill John.

She had even said she would get away with it because people would think she was mad. The judge found her to be vengeful, violent, and believed she was an extreme danger to society. He dismissed her claims of battered wife syndrome, finding that the evidence clearly showed she was the violent one in her relationships. As a result, Cathy Knight became the first woman in Australia to be sentenced to imprisonment for the term of her natural life. No possibility of parole.

To sentence any person to life imprisonment is a big thing. To sentence a woman to life imprisonment for me was an even bigger thing. This was as bad a case as you got, so she had to go to jail for the term of her life. She'd shown no remorse. She hadn't acknowledged that she had any problem at all. Such a person, if released, is not unlikely to do the same again. There's a real prospect of it.

The detective in charge of the case was Detective Bob Wells. When I was interviewing Catherine, you can catch someone's eye and you say to yourself, I'm being bullshitted here. It's a combination of catching their eye, catching the expression on their face, that you know that this person is feeding you only what she wants to feed you. And that's why I still believe that Catherine would now be able to provide information as to what took place and why it took place.

After a while of doing jail time, Cathy said that she'd finally found peace and she was enjoying her time. But she obviously didn't like the idea of spending the rest of her life there because she appealed to the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal. She claimed her sentence was too harsh. Thankfully, the court rejected her appeal and she will spend the rest of her life behind bars. To this day, she has never given a reason for what she did or why she did it.

And she has never shown any remorse.