NSW: Wife gets minimum four years' jail for killing husband

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2008
NSW: Wife gets minimum four years' jail for killing husband

By Margaret Scheikowski

SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - The children of a man stabbed to death by his drunken wife will
probably feel that her minimum four-year jail term is "inadequate", the sentencing judge
has said.

A NSW Supreme Court jury found Danielle Stewart, 32, not guilty of murder but guilty
of the manslaughter of Chaim Kimel, 55, at their Rose Bay home, in Sydney's east, in August
2006.

On Tuesday, Acting Justice Jane Mathews jailed Stewart for a minimum of four years
and maximum of six years and four months.

She noted Stewart had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, had a borderline personality
disorder and was extremely intoxicated at the time of the stabbing.

During a late night argument at their unit, Stewart grabbed an antique knife, previously
kept in its sheath on a coffee table, and stabbed her husband twice in the abdomen.

The crime occurred in the hallway outside the bedroom of Mr Kimel's 16-year-old son,
who heard his father say: "Are you crazy, what are you doing, are you crazy?".

The boy rushed out to see his father holding his hands across his stomach and covered in blood.

The judge said the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would have been
"extremely traumatised" and undoubtedly the event would remain with him for the rest of
his life.

She referred to the "moving" victim impact statements read out by Mr Kimel's three
children, who were obviously devastated by his death and spoke of his exceptional qualities.

"I suspect you will regard the punishment I am about to impose as quite inadequate
...," she said.

"The sentences imposed by a court are not intended to reflect, and indeed cannot reflect,
the extent of the loss to a family and friends, no matter how great that loss."

Stewart's blood alcohol reading at the time of the stabbing was calculated to have been 0.240.

"I accept the offender has no memory whatsoever of the stabbing, nor of the events
immediately leading up to it," the judge said.

She said the jury's verdict meant that by reason of Stewart's intoxication - be it
from alcohol alone or in combination with anti-psychotic medication - she lacked the requisite
intention for the offence of murder.

Stewart's background included losing her mother to cancer at a young age, being sexually
abused as a child, attempting suicide on a number of occasions, battling anorexia, and
abusing alcohol and drugs.

The judge described Stewart's relationship with her husband as volatile.

But she said what Stewart perceived to be "dominating and controlling" behaviour by
her husband could well have been protective behaviour aimed at shielding her from her
own excesses.

The earliest date on which Stewart will be eligible for parole will be June 24, 2011.

Mr Kimel's children did not comment on the sentence as they left the court.

AAP mss/hn/tnf/bwl

KEYWORD: STEWART WRAP

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