A Yarraville woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison over the stabbing death of her partner.
Brittney Johnston, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after stabbing James Berias in the chest with a large kitchen knife on April 6 last year.
Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale found Johnston had a history of violence towards the 34-year-old victim and was affected by ‘ice’ at the time of the stabbing.
The court heard the pair had a brief but volatile relationship, with Johnston knocking out the victim’s tooth as well as cutting him with a knife on at least two other occasions in the month before his death.
Johnston told an examining psychologist she had gone without sleep for four or five days before the incident.
Justice Beale found the offence to have been connected to Johnston’s substance abuse and a troubled childhood, but could not have been considered self-defence.
“What is clear is that, by your plea of guilty, you acknowledge that you stabbed Mr Berias and that you had no justification for doing so, that you were not acting in lawful self-defence,” he said.
“Even though I have found you have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation, specific deterrence assumes prominence because of your history of violence and use of knives.”
