Shortcut: The Only Australian Woman Sentenced to Life Without Parole
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Australian True Crime with Michelle Laurie.
What makes Katherine Knight's case significant in Australian history?
Catherine Knight is the only woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In 2001, she was convicted of murdering her partner, John Price, in a case so shocking and brutal that it remains one of the most infamous crimes Australia has ever seen. Today, we're unpacking the crime, the trial and the legal questions surrounding the case with Lauren Casamatis, Principal Lawyer and Director at Gallant Law. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
When you look at the case, it's remarkable in that it's probably the most, I'd say, reprehensible crime at that stage in Australia that had occurred. And what makes it more, I'm not going to say attractive, but people fascinated by true crime. And why were they so fascinated by her? It's because she was a female. A lot of people don't expect women to be so aggressive. And also because it was just so...
I guess, tragic and barbaric.
What details surround the shocking murder of John Price?
We can say we don't expect women to behave in a certain way, but also when I look at her background, her early childhood, it ticks all the boxes of a violent offender. She was born into violence, domestic violence in the home, sexual violence in the home. And so, again, if she were a man, we'd go, okay, yeah, well, that's a great start for a violent offender in adulthood, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, no, I agree.
So she not only experienced violence against herself, but she witnessed horrific violence against her mother, sexual violence. And so that usually is a precursor to violent crimes. And I always say there's no such thing as an evil person. People commit crimes because of... something that's happened in their lifetime. And often what you see with women is that they are a victim of domestic violence to begin with, and it turns into crime because either they've learnt maladaptive behaviours, they've sort of inherited these actions and they go on to do it themselves, or there's such a deterioration in their sense of worth, their sense of esteem and their sense of, I guess, belonging, that they look for crime as a way to heal.
So I'm thinking, for example, drug use. Uh, fraud, like there's often women that are committing, um, dishonest defences because it's a way to take charge of their life or control their life. She ended up, um, what the psychiatrist assessed her as was having borderline personality disorder. And that often comes from serious trauma as a child witnessing violence like she did.
She was always, uh, an extraordinary woman and young girl in terms of, and I mean extraordinary in its true sense, you know, not as in great, but as in I read that when she was 16, she said she got her dream job, which was at the abattoir. And it was on the tools at the abattoir. So there's not many 16-year-old girls who want to spend their working days cutting up animals, let alone call it their dream job. So in 1976, and I think this was the first time that Catherine's mental illness became very clear to everybody, she took her only baby at that stage, her first child, and she left the baby on the train tracks, like in the middle of the train tracks. And she walked away and by a miracle, a man heard the baby crying and rescued the baby.
So obviously evidence of postnatal depression.
Yeah.
How did Katherine Knight's background influence her actions?
Yeah, and I wonder also if it's the first signs of borderline personality. I think she was diagnosed at that point.
Had she been diagnosed? Yeah, yeah.
Because I would say that they act impulsively. They disassociate, so they disconnect in terms of judgment and they're just on autopilot in a way. and not thinking about the consequences. There's no empathy as well. So I would say you're right, there's postnatal. There must be a combination of things there, but at least I guess obviously it's a blessing the baby survived and also it's probably this terrible cry for help where at least there was a bystander that could then redirect her for treatment because as I understand it, she didn't get any criminal treatment.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–0:07
2
What makes Katherine Knight's case significant in Australian history?
0:07–1:19
3
What details surround the shocking murder of John Price?
1:19–3:33
4
How did Katherine Knight's background influence her actions?
3:33–6:22
5
What psychological factors contributed to Katherine Knight's behavior?
6:22–11:47