Woman Stabs Boyfriend's Heart With Steak Knife, Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison

A woman who killed her partner by stabbing his chest with a steak knife has been sentenced to jail.

The Birmingham Crown Court sentenced Emma-Jayne Magson to serve a minimum term of 17 years for killing 26-year-old James Knight.

Knight died in March 2016 after Magson stabbed him with a steak knife following a drunken row between the duo.

Even though she denied the crime and claimed she acted in self-defense, the Leicester Crown Court, during a trial towards the end of 2016, convicted her for the murder and sentenced her to serve the 17-year term.

The Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in January 2020. Magson was convicted for a second time earlier this month.

She claimed she never had the intention to kill or seriously harm her boyfriend. The jurors, however, rejected her plea after learning how she committed the murder.

The woman had brutally plunged the knife into the victim’s heart. She then waited for around 45 minutes before calling 911 to report the incident.

"As to the precise circumstances in which you came to inflict the fatal wound to James Knight's chest, these may never be fully known, as there were no witnesses to the event," Justice Jeremy Baker told Magson during the trial.

"I regret I am unconvinced you have, as yet, any real remorse for having caused James Knight's death," Baker told Magson.

The suspect claimed that her partner was abusive throughout their relationship. The prosecutors, however, proved that Magson was the "aggressor."

"Although I am sure that you were motivated by anger towards James Knight when you stabbed him, I accept that there is no sufficient evidence that you intended to kill him as opposed to causing him to suffer really serious bodily harm," the judge said.

Magson’s prison term would run from the date of the first trial, the judge said.

"Had it not been for the statutory limitation on the court's powers, the minimum term would have been in excess of that previously imposed upon you," Justice Baker said during the trial.

On the day of the incident, when the suspect called the emergency services, she did not report about the stabbing, instead, she claimed her boyfriend was just "too smashed."

When the emergency service operator informed the suspect that the ambulance might be delayed she replied, "No, that's fine, don't worry about it," the Daily Star reported.

"I don't care just get my boyfriend out" the agitated suspect began screaming before adding: "I don't care as long as he is alive".

The police had released body-cam visuals of the chilling incident. The suspect can be seen crying for her boyfriend after she stabbed him to death.

"I want my boyfriend" she can be heard saying. "James, come on."

Knight is survived by two young children with a former partner. He and the suspect were in a relationship for 6 months.