forensic medicine ppt.pptx

1. KATHERINE KNIGHT

2. CONTENTS
 Introduction to culprit
 Introduction to victim
 Prior to crime
 Crime scene
 Modes of death
 Investigations
 History of culprit
 Judiciary Reports

3. INTRODUCTION TO CULPRIT
 Katherine Mary Knight born on October 24, 1955, in
Tenterfield, Australia.
 Katherine Mary Knight was the product of a scandalous
affair. When their secret rendezvous came to light, it
rocked their small conservative town.
 Following this tumultuous start, Knight’s chaotic childhood
didn’t get much better from there. Her father was a violent
alcoholic who raped her mother multiple times a day.
Knight herself claims that she was sexually assaulted by
several family members until the age of 11.

4. CONTINUE…..
 Without ever learning how to read or write, she quit
at the age of 15 to work at a clothing factory. A year
later, she landed her “dream job” at a
slaughterhouse.
 Knight met David Kellett. In 1974, she convinced
him to marry her. Her mother even warned him
about her daughter’s temper, saying that Knight had
“a screw loose somewhere.”
 Mother of 4 children.

5. INTRODUCTION TO VICTIM
 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.

6. THEIR HOUSE

7. PRIOR TO CRIME
 During February 2000, John would be stabbed
among other acts of abuse, in this month he would
kick her out of the house.
 John was really scared of being killed by Katherine
and would even joke about it to his co-workers
about her murdering him.

8. CRIME NIGHT

9. CRIME NIGHT
 The 29th of February / the 1st of March would be
the start of awful events. On the night of the 29th of
February, John would spend the night with
neighbors and his children would be staying with
another family member.
 At 11pm, John returned home where Katherine
was waiting for him, they then proceeded to have
“pleasurable sex” before Katherine killed him.

10. Photograph
of Katherine
shortly
before her
crime.

11. CONTINUE…
 After he fell asleep. Moments later, Knight impaled
him repeatedly in the chest. Despite suffering
multiple injuries, Price managed to escape from the
bedroom, leaving a bloody trail behind him as he
made his way to the front door but didn’t survive.

12. The only
released
crime
scene
photo

13.  Once John was dead, Knight used a knife to
remove the head and skin from his body and hung
it from a meat hook in the entranceway of the
house.
 She then decapitated him and cooked parts of his
body, serving up the meat with baked potato,
pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, yellow squash and
gravy in settings at the dinner table.
 Knight placed Price’s head in a pot on her stove
and also roasted cut pieces of flesh from buttock in
the oven.

14. TINY KITCHEN AREA WHERE THE BLOOD TRAIL
LED TO THE SHOCKING DISCOVERY ON THE
STOVE

16. MODES OD DEATH
 Butcher's knife.
 Stabbed at least 37 times – the ferocity of the
attack made it difficult to count the number of
wounds.
 Many were deep. Vitals like the lungs, liver, kidneys
and aorta were hit.
 The blood loss was massive.

18. CONTINUE…..
 The victim’s skin was on display, dangling from a
meat hook on the architrave.
 Plated on the kitchen table were what appeared to
be steaks, presented with vegetables.
 The steaks were from a human.
 she wrote place cards with messages for Price's
adult children, which she set next to each meal.

20. INVESTIGATION
 John Price hadn’t turned up for work on the
morning of March 1, a colleague went to see if he
was OK. After noticing blood on the door, the
workmate called police.
 They arrived at the house around 8am and were
confronted with a pool of blood around 1m by 2m in
the hallway of the house. Blood spatter and smears
were found throughout the house.

21.  From crime scene evidence, investigators deduced
the first blows were struck in the master bedroom.
He tried to escape, heading down the hallway
toward the front door. His assailant chased him,
stabbing him repeatedly in the back.
 His glimpse of hope was brief, and he was dragged
back into the hallway where he finally expired.
 In the lounge room, police found Price’s headless
body. Forensic evidence suggested he was
dragged there after his death.

22.  Then he’d been skinned. Then decapitated. Both
were done skillfully and without signs of hesitation.
 In the kitchen, they found Price’s head, described
as a “sickening stew” was still at 40-50C.
 On the kitchen table were “gruesome steaks”,
carved from Price’s buttocks, that had been roasted
in the oven with vegetables.
 After the post mortem examination, the skin was
able to be re-sown onto Price’s body

24. POLICE MAP OF MURDER SCENE

25. HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
 She Strangled Her First Husband On Their
Wedding Night.
 She later hit him in the head with a frying pan,
fracturing his skull, because he came home late
one night.
 She Killed A Former Boyfriend's Puppy.
 She Left Her Baby On Railroad Tracks.

26. MEDICAL REPORTS OF CULPRIT
 Knight claimed she's been subjected to repeated
violence and sexual assaults. She also alleged her
parents routinely beat her and her siblings with a dog
leash and an electrical cord.
 She Was Diagnosed With Borderline Personality
Disorder.
 BPD is a serious mental disorder that can cause
sufferers to have unstable behavior and moods, and
people with this disorder are prone to impulsivity and
often experience intense anger and depression.

27. JUDICIARY REPORTS
 The courts sentenced Knight to life in prison without
the possibility of parole, making her the first woman
in Australia's history to receive a true life sentence.
 Five years later, in 2006, Knight filed to appeal her
sentence, claiming it was too severe a punishment,
but the Supreme Court of South Wales dismissed
her appeal.