Pregnant mum of 8 jailed for knife attack

A PREGNANT mother of eight has been jailed after stabbing her partner in the chest with two steak knives.

Kristie Anne Sharpley and her then partner of three years had been drinking alcohol at the family home in Oakey when an argument broke out after he allegedly said he was in love with Sharpley’s sister.

As he went to the front veranda, the 34-year-old had gone to the kitchen and retrieved two steak knives before approaching her partner and plunging the knives into his chest, Toowoomba District Court heard.

When a short time later he found he had trouble breathing, the victim drove himself to Oakey Hospital from where he was transferred to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane for treatment to a punctured lung, his other cuts being sutured, Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso told the court.

The man had not wanted to make a complaint or have Sharpley charged as a result of the October 9, 2016, incident but hospital staff contacted police, Ms Kelso said.

The man had not wanted to provide a victim impact statement but just wanted her to get help, she said.

Sharpley pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful wounding which carried a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.

Ms Kelso said it was not the first time Sharpley had resorted to violence and pointed to the defendant’s New South Wales criminal history which documented an incident in which she had stabbed a former partner in the back during an argument in 2006.

She had also been convicted of assault occasioning bodily harm of the same Oakey man in November 2014 after she had struck him over the head with a glass photo frame, she said.

Her barrister Steve Kissick told the court his client had underlying issues which needed addressing.

His client had been the victim of domestic violence at the hands of a former partner some years ago and the victim of this matter had told police he had noticed she wasn’t herself in the lead up to the stabbing, he said.

His client was now receiving counselling and was medicated for depression, Mr Kissick submitted.

Noting she was now five months pregnant, Judge Tony Rafter SC sentenced Sharpley to two years in jail but ordered she be released on parole as of February 1, next year, after having served six months.