Katherine Knight

Katherine Mary Knight (born 24 October 1955) is an Australian murderer and the first woman in the country's history to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She was convicted for the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in February 2000, and is currently imprisoned at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre in New South Wales. Knight stabbed Price to death, skinned him, and then put his skin on a meat hook, which she had recently installed. She then cooked his head and parts of his body with the intention of feeding them to Price's adult children, but was stopped by police after an employee of his went to check on him after he had not been at work that day. Early life and family Katherine Knight was born and raised in an unconventional and dysfunctional family environment. Her mother, Barbara Roughan (née Thorley), had been married to Jack Roughan and lived with him in the small town of Aberdeen in New South Wales' Hunter Valley. They had four sons before Barbara began an adulterous relationship with Ken Knight, a friend and co-worker of her then-husband. Local backlash forced Barbara and Ken to move to Moree. None of her sons went with her; the two eldest boys continued to reside with their father and the two younger sons were sent to be raised by an aunt in Sydney. Barbara had four additional children with Ken, including twin girls born in 1955 in Tenterfield; Katherine was one of these twin daughters. In 1959, when Knight was four, Jack Roughan died and his two older sons, who had been living with him, moved in with Barbara and Ken. Ken was a violent alcoholic who would rape Barbara up to ten times per day. Barbara, in turn, often told her daughters intimate details of her sex life and how much she hated sex and men. Later, when Katherine complained to her mother that one of her partners wanted her to take part in a sex act she did not want to perform, Barbara told her to "put up with it and stop complaining." Katherine claims she was frequently sexually assaulted by several members of her family (though not by her father), which continued until she was aged 11. Although there are doubts about the details, psychiatrists accept her claims and the events have been largely confirmed by other members of the family.