'Hannibal Lecter' wife killed lover, cooked his head and served it with potatoes

Daily Record

07-07-2025

Katherine Knight made history in Australia when she became the first woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment
One woman, infamously labelled as Australia's "Hannibal Lecter" was characterised as a "horror movie in the making" after displaying chilling signs of violence before she stabbed her husband 37 times, decapitated him, and cooked his flesh with potatoes.
Katherine Knight became the first woman to receive a life sentence without parole in Australia for her heinous acts. In a macabre incident that stunned the small town of Aberdeen, New South Wales, the mother-of-four perpetrated an atrocity.
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She murdered her partner John Price by stabbing him 37 times, decapitating him, boiling his head, and suspending his body from a meat hook.
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Following the murder on February 29, 2000, Knight concocted a gruesome meal using Price's cooked remains, which she plated with cabbage and gravy, intending to serve it to his children as they came home from school.
Yet, this crime didn't occur without precedent. Former detective Luke Taylor spoke to news.com.au about her inclination towards "violent" behaviour, which he attributed to "an abusive childhood", reports the Mirror US.
"There were so many warning signs yet none were heeded," said Taylor. "She was a horror movie in the making," he added.
The harrowing narrative wasn't unforeseen. Knight had a violent past; she had once stabbed Price during a dispute, leading him to file a restraining order against her.
Despite this, the pair made up before the tragic day that ended in disaster.
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Knight alleges she endured horrific sexual abuse during her childhood at the hands of various men.
She claimed she suffered sexual abuse by different family members throughout her youth, which laid the groundwork for her volatile relationships with men in later life.
In Peter Lalor's book Blood Stains, Knight's formative years are exposed.
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She was recognised amongst her classmates for being a bully who once attacked a boy at school.
Knight even attempted to strangle her first husband, David Kellett, on their wedding night and is reported to have smashed his skull with a frying pan.
She also killed another partner's dog and attacked him with scissors.
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Alarmingly, Knight, a former slaughterhouse worker, was acknowledged by neighbour Rick Banyard as "a very proficient meatworker."
It was their final argument before Price's death that made the father suspect he might be in grave danger.
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After a particularly fierce row, Price allegedly told his workmates that if he didn't turn up for work the following day, they should contact the police and come searching for him.
Then, blood stains were discovered on Knight's front door.
On the morning of March 1, 2000, neighbours rang the police after spotting the horrifying signs of violence.
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Arrested after police discovered her unconscious beside Price's body, her conviction came in 2001, and her appeal was rejected in 2006, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). "By the time I got to the scene, Katherine was leaving in an ambulance. She had taken some pills. Not enough to kill her, but they made her sleepy," former Sergeant Robert Wells shared with ABC.
"I walked inside and saw the human skin pelt hanging up, completely intact in one piece. John Price's decapitated and skinned body was lying on the floor in the lounge room. We found his head, it had been boiled and cooked in a pot on the stove. There were a number of slices of rump, taken off his human rump, baked in the oven with some vegetables and put on plates, with the name of two of his children on them.
"The last minutes of [Price's] life must have been a time of abject terror for him, as they were a time of utter enjoyment for her," Supreme Court Justice Barry O'Keefe stated during Knight's sentencing.
Yet to those familiar with the couple, their relationship appeared utterly ordinary. "I think, basically, nobody sort of expected any significant drama at all, let alone the crime that became recorded as one of the worst pieces of history in Australia," he said.