Katherine Knight: Australia's killer cannibal

Early life

Katherine Knight had a turbulent and dysfunctional childhood. Her mother, Barbara Roughan, had eight children in total: four sons from a previous marriage and four children with Kenneth Charles Knight, including twin daughters, one of whom was Knight.

Kenneth was a violent and abusive drunk who raped his wife repeatedly. Consequently, Barbara grew to despise men and sex — a sentiment which she frequently shared with her daughter. When a young Knight would discuss hesitancy about becoming intimate with partners, Babara would tell her to 'put up with it and stop complaining'.

Later in court, Knight revealed that multiple members of her family sexually assaulted her, although not her father. Along with her mother's all-consuming misery, this shaped Knight into an aggressive teen who classmates remembered as a bully.

Abusive relationships

Knight's subsequent relationships followed a similar pattern of abuse. Her first marriage to co-worker David Stanford Kellett in 1973 was marred by drinking and violence. On their wedding day, Barbara pulled David aside and told him: 'You better watch this one or she'll f***ing kill you. Stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you're f***ed'.

That night, Knight tried to strangle her new husband for falling asleep. Over the next decade, despite having two daughters together, the beatings and berating continued until the couple finally split in 1984.

Knight had a few more volatile relationships and children before she met John Price in the mid-90s. He also had kids from previous relationships, and although Knight had a violent reputation, they all seemed to like her. Nevertheless, John was hesitant about living together (eventually, he relented) and refused to marry Knight, which often sent her into fits of rage.

The crime

The abuse became so frequent and severe that John's friends warned him to leave or be killed. After a particularly brutal series of assaults, in which Knight stabbed John in the chest, he finally sought a restraining order on 28th February 2000.

His colleagues begged him not to go home to Knight, but he feared she would kill his children if he didn't. He then told them in an eerie premonition if he didn't attend work the next day, it'd be because Knight had murdered him.

When John arrived home, Knight wasn't there and his children had been sent to neighbours' houses for sleepovers. She returned much later and the couple had sex before falling asleep.

The next day, as anticipated, John didn't show up for work. When his colleague and neighbour checked the house, they found blood stains on the door and no sign of life. They immediately rang the police, who started piecing together what had happened.It transpired that Knight had stabbed John with a butcher's knife while he was sleeping. The trails of blood suggested he tried to run and, at one point, escaped into the garden — but he either fell or was dragged back into the house. An autopsy later revealed that he'd been stabbed a frenzied 37 times.

Several hours later, Knight skinned him and hung the remains from a butcher's hook. She also decapitated him and cooked his head in a pot. When police entered the house, they found the dinner table set with a meal for each of John's children. The grisly meal comprised of cooked body parts, vegetables and gravy.

Knight then took a large number of pills and passed out.

The aftermath

Although psychiatrists confirmed that Knight had borderline personality disorder and her attorneys claimed she had no memory of the attack, the jury found her unanimously guilty. Several had to be dismissed because of the graphic nature of the evidence.

Justice O'Keefe noted that throughout the trial, she showed no remorse and refused to take responsibility. Due to this and the savagery of her crimes, Katherine Knight was the first woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life without parole.