Thursday, April 13, 2006

Partnership of 16 Years Ends in Knifing Death

(Link) If your relationship looks like this, you need to spend your booze money on couples therapy. Violence, alcohol and codependence are never a winning combo.
Posted by at

1 comment:

LNewsEditor said...

JIC Post:
From Nine MSN - Australia

A Melbourne woman who stabbed her lesbian lover to death in a "frenzy of passion" has been jailed for eight years.

Joanne Stenhouse, 43, stabbed her partner of 16 years, Anne Maher, on Easter Sunday last year.

She tried to revive her but Ms Maher was dead by the time emergency services arrived.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Geoffrey Nettle on Thursday jailed Stenhouse for eight years, with a non-parole period of five, including 383 days already served.

advertisement
Stenhouse and Ms Maher, both heavy drinkers, lived together in north suburban Reservoir and constantly argued.

"It was a love-hate relationship in which you and the deceased appeared incapable of living peacefully together but incapable of living without each other," Justice Nettle said.

Ms Maher, who was aged in her 50s, was "big", "loveable" and the dominant figure in the relationship, he said.

She would scold Stenhouse for trivial things such as housework and punctuality and sometimes referred to her as "low life" and "dog".

"You (Stenhouse) were of quieter disposition and frequently reacted to her conduct with tears and dismay," Justice Nettle said.

During an argument on Easter Sunday last year, Ms Maher told Stenhouse she would make her life hell.

"At that point you snapped," Justice Nettle said.

"You felt as though the deceased was taunting you and you wanted her to shut up.

"And so in that state of mind, you picked up a carving knife from the knife block in the kitchen where you were and stabbed her once in the chest.

"The insults delivered during the course of Easter Sunday afternoon were ... the straw that broke the camel's back and sent you over the edge into a frenzy of rage and passion."

Stenhouse pleaded not guilty to murder and a jury cleared her of that charge but found her guilty of manslaughter.

Justice Nettle said he considered the crime to be manslaughter by provocation, which was a case of serious homicide.

4/13/2006 11:02 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)