A 27-year-old Irish woman will spend at least five years in an Australian prison after she fatally stabbed her abusive fiancé, six weeks after the pair had become engaged to marry.
On Wednesday morning, Justice Peter Johnson sentenced Cathrina Ann Cahill to eight years in prison, with a non-parole period of five years, in the NSW Supreme Court.
Cahill killed her fiancé David Walsh in the early hours of Feb. 18, 2017, after he violently assaulted one of three people Cahill had returned home with after a night out drinking.
She inflicted a fatal stab wound to his neck as the chaotic scene unfolded at the home she and Walsh shared in the southwest Sydney suburb of Padstow.
The pair were both Irish nationals in Australia on working holiday visas. Walsh was 29 when he was killed, and had kids in Ireland from previous relationships.
Cahill was originally charged with murder, but on Oct. 23 pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, on the basis she was substantially impaired due to an underlying mental condition at the time.
Justice Johnson said Cahill and Walsh had a "volatile" relationship that was characterised by violence and alcohol abuse. From April 2016, each had an apprehended violence order out against the other, a state of affairs that arose from their "drunken and fractious" relationship, he said.
Walsh controlled Cahill and became extremely angry and jealous when he believed she was seeing other men, the court heard. He also verbally abused her, regularly using demeaning language.
Cahill sometimes responded to this violence with violence, Johnson said.
In October 2015 she stabbed Walsh in the back of the head during a fight, causing minor injuries to Walsh that were treated with the makeshift icepack of a packet of frozen peas.
In November 2015 she was convicted of reckless wounding after throwing a glass candleholder at Walsh that lacerated his forehead. She was sentenced to a good behaviour bond that was still in place at the time she killed Walsh.
Johnson said the violence went both ways, but he was satisfied Cahill’s violent retaliations were always either triggered by, or a response to, Walsh’s abusive behaviour.
The fatal stabbing, he said, could be characterised as "the last straw". It was an offence committed "in the heat of the moment" and a sudden response to yet another act of violence from Walsh.
Cahill killed Walsh with a large kitchen knife in the middle of a chaotic brawl that broke out around midnight between Walsh and Matthew Hyde, who Cahill and two female friends had met at the pub earlier that night.
Cahill and Walsh had been at the pub together earlier that night when, during a conversation about one of Cahill's ex-boyfriends, he called her a "bike" and asked "How many exes have you had, you slut?"
The pair went their separate ways for several hours: Walsh got into an altercation at Randwick before returning home, and Cahill went to another pub, in Padstow, with her friends, where they met Hyde.
After Cahill, Hyde and the two women arrived to the home shared by Cahill and Walsh, Walsh roused from the couch and repeatedly punched Hyde over the mistaken and jealous belief he was interested in Cahill, the court heard.
According to agreed facts tendered to the court, the pair's housemate Grace Keegan managed to subdue Walsh by pinning him against the wall.
Cahill got the knife out of a drawer and, fixated on Walsh, walked towards him holding it as Keegan struggled to push Cahill away and keep the couple apart. Cahill then stabbed Walsh in the neck.
Walsh staggered outside and was treated by paramedics before being pronounced dead just before 1am.
At her sentencing hearing last month, Cahill cried in the witness box as she was handed a photo from New Year's Eve 2016, the night of their engagement, that shows her smiling and displaying her ring next to Walsh.
She told the court she stayed with Walsh and agreed to marry him because she loved him, and because he often told her he would change.
“I think because I loved him I did believe that David would change, but every time he said he would change, it would just go back to the very way it was,” she said.
Walsh gave Cahill a Valentine's Day card days before she killed him that said "I know I can be a cunt, but to you, I can be a good cunt. Sorry about all, love Davey".
Cahill had a "rose-coloured glasses" view of the future and "any plan for marriage was doomed to fail", Johnson said.
Johnson found Cahill did not intend to kill Walsh when she stabbed him, but rather to inflict grievous bodily harm. He said she had shown genuine remorse for killing Walsh, and he described her risk of re-offending as “very low indeed” and prospects for rehabilitation as “excellent”.
Two psychiatrists differed on Cahill's exact diagnosis, but the evidence showed she was suffering a "significant depression" at the time of the killing, which arose from the "unusual and abusive relationship which had been on foot with Mr Walsh for some time", Johnson said.
Johnson also extended his condolences to Walsh’s family in Ireland, several of whom provided victim impact statements to the court.
He acknowledged their "enormous loss" of Walsh as a brother and father and said the fact it had been necessary to consider negative aspects of Walsh, including his conduct towards Cahill, did not detract from their sadness and grief.
Cahill, who has been in custody since the day she was arrested, looked directly at Johnson and did not visibly react as she was sentenced.
She will likely be deported to Ireland on her release, where she plans to live with her family and "seek to make a new life for herself there", the court heard.
The earliest date Cahill will be eligible for release on parole is Feb. 18, 2022.