NSW: Woman found guilty of murdering man over barking dog
By Katelyn John01 Apr 2009 6:08 PM
SYDNEY, April 1 AAP - A Sydney woman was so incensed when an Australia Day reveller told her barking dog to shut up that she stabbed the man to death on her front lawn.
Joseph Durrant, 47, was on his way home from alcohol-fuelled national day celebrations in 2007 when he argued with his western Sydney neighbour Katrina Megan Whitmore about her noisy dog.
A NSW Supreme Court jury on Wednesday found Whitmore, 26, guilty of Mr Durrant's murder, after deliberating since Monday.
The court heard Whitmore had threatened Mr Durrant before physically attacking him.
Whitmore's co-accused Steven Spiro Sotiropoulos, 34, who joined in the fracas in Phyllis Street, Mt Pritchard, was found not guilty of the same charge.
The crown's main witness was Adam Duncan, who was at a party in the house next door when he says he saw Whitmore run down her driveway brandishing a knife in the early hours of January 27.
"I didn't notice it straight away, but when she was coming down (the drive) I seen the knife," Mr Duncan told crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell, QC.
"Katrina was standing behind the guy (who was) on the ground trying to get up. He got up (and I'm) pretty sure Katrina stabbed him in the neck."
But Whitmore and Sotiropoulos' lawyers tried to discredit Mr Duncan's testimony, saying he was a self-confessed drug addict who had been drunk and high on ice and ecstasy when he saw the scuffle.
Whitmore has admitted there was a struggle, but denied wielding a knife.
"She said she didn't have a knife - not only she didn't have a knife, but she didn't use a knife," Mr Maxwell said.
"She does say that she told people not to speak to her dog like that."
Whitmore's barrister Ray Hood said his client was never physically involved in the attack and any threatening comments were "simply a matter of bravado".
Justice Michael Adams will hear sentencing submissions for Whitmore on May 29.
