The Butcher of Aberdeen:Katherine Knight·Katherine Mary Knight·John Price

Katherine Knight had long worked in meat plants in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. By the late 1990s she was in a volatile relationship with John Price, a 44-year-old coal miner in the small town of Aberdeen. On February 28, 2000, days after Knight had knifed him in the chest, Price went to court for an order to keep her away from him, and he told coworkers he feared she would kill him.

Knight went back to his house anyway. In the early hours of March 1, 2000, she attacked Price with a butcher’s knife while he slept and stabbed him at least 37 times as he tried to flee, then mutilated his body using the skills she had learned at the slaughterhouse. When he missed work, a coworker was sent to check on him. Police found that Knight had started cooking parts of the body and had set places at the table for two of his children. She was lying unconscious after taking an overdose of pills.

Knight pleaded guilty to murder in October 2001. On November 8, 2001, Justice Barry O’Keefe sentenced her to life imprisonment and directed that she never be released, making her the first woman in Australia sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed her appeal in September 2006.