Guilty over stabbing

A FAMILY dispute ended in bloodshed after a Far North woman stabbed her cousin in the stomach, nearly killing him over an argument about the man’s relationship with her 19-year-old niece.

Kaidii Dayl Ephraums then tried to get her mum to take the rap for the violent outburst.

The Cairns District Court heard all three had been at a New Year’s Eve party at a Westcourt home in December 2017 when a dispute broke out on Saint George Close in the early hours.

It is understood the then-31-year-old man was Ephraums’ second cousin and there had been family discontent about the relationship.

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said that during a heated argument, Ephraums plunged a serrated steak knife into his stomach “and he began bleeding”.

Ephraums attacked him a second time as he and her niece were leaving. It resulted in a fight on the ground with the teen and she was cut on the wrist and thigh.

Ms Friedewald said Ephraums also “threatened to kill them” if they returned to her mother’s home.

“She then threw the knife in a nearby yard and went home,” she said.

At the hospital, the man went into haemorrhagic shock and needed an emer- gency blood transfusion and surgery because the stab wound had hit his liver and he’d lost two litres of blood.

Ephraums pleaded guilty to multiple charges including grievous bodily harm, wounding and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

She has spent 13 months in custody.

In the first week, she made two phone calls and sent four letters trying to get her mum to take the blame and the victims to take back their statements to police, which Judge Tracy Fantin labelled “crude and unsophisticated” attempts to avoid responsibility.

Defence barrister Stephanie Williams argued there had been “some level of provocation by way of aggression” by her cousin before he was stabbed by her client.

Ms Williams said Ephraums had shown a “significant rehabilitation while … in custody”, obtaining the second highest paid position and she was also having weekly sessions with a psychologist.

Judge Tracy Fantin gave her immediate parole eligibility on a 4½-year jail term.

Convictions were recorded.

THERE HAD BEEN ‘SOME LEVEL OF PROVOCATION BY WAY OF AGGRESSION’ BY HER COUSIN BEFORE HE WAS STABBED BY HER CLIENT STEPHANIE WILLIAMS