The only woman in Australia serving life in prison without the hope of parole is appealing against the severity of her sentence for murdering and mutilating her partner.
Abattoir worker Katherine Knight stabbed her de facto husband, John Price, 37 times and served his flesh to his children for dinner.
In February 2000, Knight skinned Mr Price at their home at Aberdeen, in the Hunter Valley, and put his head in a pot on the stove.
She was jailed for life in 2001, without the possibility of parole.
Knight is appealing against the severity of the sentence in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, where her barrister John Stratton, SC, today argued that the killing did not fall into the worst category of cases.
Mr Stratton said that only the mutilation of Mr Price's body set it apart from other domestic murders.
But one of the appeal judges, Justice Michael Adams, said psychiatric evidence suggested Knight "got some pleasure out of the mutilation, and that was very troubling".
Mr Stratton also said Knight had been physically abused by former partners and the sentencing judge should have taken that into account.
The hearing continues.
AAP
