Katherine Knight

The case was covered by episode 78 of “Necronomipod” in March 2020.

The case was covered by episode 162 of true crime podcast True Crime All The Time in December 2019.

This case was covered by Bailey Sarian on "Murder, Mystery & Makeup" in an episode titled "The Woman Hannibal Lecter - Katherine Knight" on 25 February 2019.

The case was covered by Episodes 329 and 330 of The Last Podcast on the Left in August 2018.

The case was covered by Episode 110 of "Timesuck" with Dan Cummins on 22 October 2018.

This case was covered by Episode 309 of Generation Why on 16 December 2018.

This case was covered by episode 31 of "RedHanded" Podcast on 1 February 2018.

This case was covered by Morbid podcast Episode 18 on 11 September 2018.

The case was covered by Casefile True Crime Podcast on 26 March 2016.

When she attended Muswellbrook high school, Knight became a loner and is remembered by classmates as a bully who stood over smaller children. She assaulted at least one boy at school with a weapon and was once injured by a teacher – who was subsequently found to have acted in self-defence. By contrast, when not in a rage, Knight was a model student and often earned awards for her good behaviour. Upon leaving school at 15, without having learned to read or write, she gained employment as a cutter in a clothing factory. Twelve months later, she left to start what she referred to as her "dream job", cutting up offal at the local abattoir. There, she was quickly promoted to boning and was given her own set of butchers' knives. At home, the knives were hung over her bed so that they "would always be handy if I needed them", a habit she continued – until her incarceration – everywhere she lived.

Time got you back Johathon for rapping [raping] my douter [daughter]. You to Beck [Price's daughter] for Ross – for Little John [his son]. Now play with little Johns dick John Price. (sic)

In June 2006, Knight appealed the life sentence, claiming that a penalty of life in prison without possibility of parole was too severe for the killing. Justices Peter McClellan, Michael Adams and Megan Latham dismissed the appeal in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal in September, with Justice McClellan writing in his judgement, "This was an appalling crime, almost beyond contemplation in a civilised society."

Knight's initial offer to plead guilty to manslaughter was rejected, and she was arraigned on 2 March 2001 on the charge of murdering Price, to which she entered a plea of not guilty. Her trial was initially fixed for 23 July 2001 but was adjourned due to her counsel's illness and it was re-fixed for 15 October 2001.

In February 2000, a series of assaults on Price culminated with Knight stabbing him in the chest. Finally fed up, he kicked her out of his house. On 29 February, he stopped at the Scone Magistrate's Court on his way to work and took out a restraining order in an attempt to keep her away from both himself and his children. That afternoon, Price told his co-workers that if he did not come to work the next day, it would be because Knight had murdered him. Despite their pleas that Price not return home, he stated that he was afraid Knight would kill his children if he did not. Price arrived home to find that Knight, although not there herself, had sent the children away for a sleep-over at a friend's house. He then spent the evening with his neighbours before returning home and going to bed at 11 pm. Earlier that day, Knight had bought new black lingerie and had videotaped all her children while making comments which have since been interpreted as a crude will. She later arrived at Price's house while he was sleeping and sat watching television for a few minutes before having a shower. She then woke Price and they had sex, after which he fell asleep.

In 1998, Knight and Price fought over his refusal to marry her. In retaliation, she videotaped items he had allegedly stolen from work and sent the tape to his boss. Although the items were out of date medical kits that he had scavenged from the company rubbish tip, Price was fired from the job he had held for seventeen years, as his boss had no choice. That same day, he kicked her out and she returned to her own home while news of what she had done spread throughout the town. A few months later, Price restarted the relationship, although he now refused to allow her to move in with him. The fighting became even more frequent and most of his friends would no longer have anything to do with him while they remained together.

In 1990, Knight became pregnant by 43-year-old former abattoir co-worker John Chillingworth, and gave birth the following year to a boy they named Eric. Their relationship lasted three years before she left him for a man she had been having an affair with for some time, John Price.

Knight met 38-year-old miner David Saunders in 1986. A few months later, he moved in with her and her daughters, although he kept his old apartment in Scone. Knight soon became jealous regarding what he did when she was not around and would often throw him out. He would move back to his apartment, where she would invariably follow and beg him to return. In May 1987, she cut the throat of his two-month-old dingo pup in front of him, for no more reason than as an example of what would happen if he ever had an affair, before going on to knock him unconscious with a frying pan. In June 1988, she gave birth to a third daughter, Sarah, which prompted Saunders to put a deposit on a house; Knight paid off the deposit when her workers' compensation came through in 1989. Knight decorated the house throughout with animal skins, skulls, horns, rusty animal traps, leather jackets, old boots, machetes, rakes and pitchforks. No space, including the ceilings, was left uncovered.

In May 1976, shortly after the birth of their first child, Melissa Ann, Kellett left her for another woman and moved to Queensland, apparently unable to cope with Knight's abuse. The next day, Knight was seen pushing her new baby in a pram down the main street, violently throwing the pram from side to side. She was admitted to St Elmo's Hospital in Tamworth, where she was diagnosed with postnatal depression and spent several weeks recovering. After being released, Knight placed two-month-old Melissa on a railway line shortly before a train was due; she then stole an axe, went into town and threatened to kill several people. A man known in the district as "Old Ted", who was foraging near the railway line, found and rescued Melissa, by all accounts only minutes before the train passed. Knight was arrested and again taken to St Elmo's Hospital, but, apparently recovered, signed herself out the following day.

Knight was released on 9 August 1976 into the care of her mother-in-law and, along with Kellett, moved to Woodridge, a suburb of Brisbane, where she obtained a job at the Dinmore meatworks in nearby Ipswich. On 6 March 1980, they had another daughter, Natasha Maree. In 1984, Knight left Kellett and moved, first to her parent's house in Aberdeen, then to a rented house in nearby Muswellbrook. Although she returned to work at the abattoir, she injured her back the following year and went on a disability pension. No longer needing to rent accommodation close to her work, the government gave her a Housing Commission residence in Aberdeen.

Knight first met hard drinking co-worker David Stanford Kellett in 1973. Kellett had previously worked for the railways at Coffs Harbour. His best friend was killed in front of him in a shunting accident, and he was later present when a train hit a school bus in Kempsey, killing six children, in 1968. He helped rescue the injured and remove the bodies. His heavy drinking has been attributed to these incidents. He was transferred to Muswellbrook after causing several derailments due to falling asleep while shunting. His behaviour deteriorated and he eventually lost the job, but he soon got work at the nearby Aberdeen abattoir where he became close friends with Knight's brother. After he began dating Knight, he also occasionally partnered her twin. Often, if Kellett got into a fight, Knight would step in and back him up with her fists. In Aberdeen, she was well known for physically threatening anyone who upset her. Knight married Kellett in 1974, at her request, with the couple arriving at the service on her motorcycle with a very intoxicated Kellett on the pillion. As soon as they arrived, Knight's mother Barbara gave Kellett some advice:

Barbara's great-grandmother was an Indigenous Australian from the Moree area who had married an Irishman. Barbara was proud of this fact and identifies as Aboriginal. This was kept a family secret, as there was considerable racism in the area at the time, and this was a source of tension for the children. Apart from her twin sister, the only person whom Knight was close to was her uncle, Oscar Knight, who was a champion horseman. She was devastated when he committed suicide in 1969, and continues to maintain that his ghost visits her. The family moved back to Aberdeen the same year.

Katherine Mary Knight (born 24 October 1955) is the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She was convicted for the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in October 2001, and is currently imprisoned at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre in New South Wales. Knight stabbed Price to death, skinned him, then put his skin on a meat hook and cooked his head and parts of his body with the intention of feeding them to his children.

Local backlash forced Barbara and Ken to leave Aberdeen and move to Moree. None of her four sons went with her; the two older boys continued to reside with their father, while the two younger sons were sent to be raised by an aunt in Sydney. Barbara had four additional children with Ken, including a pair of twin girls born in 1955 in Tenterfield. Katherine Knight was the younger of these twin daughters. In 1959, when Knight was four, Jack Roughan died and his two boys, who had been living with him, moved in with Barbara (their mother) and Ken.

John Charles Thomas Price (born 4 April 1955) was the father of three children when Knight had an affair with him. Reputedly a "terrific bloke" liked by everyone who knew him, his own marriage had ended in 1988. While his two-year-old daughter had remained with his former wife, the two older children lived with him. Price was well aware of Knight's violent reputation as she moved into his house in 1995. His children liked her, he was making a lot of money working in the local mines and, apart from violent arguments, at first "life was a bunch of roses."