Woman jailed for stabbing man '70 times' on orders of sadistic boyfriend

A woman has been jailed for 10 years for stabbing a man she barely knew 70 times on the orders of her sadistic boyfriend.

Bonnie Sawyer-Thompson pleaded guilty to defensive homicide, claiming that if she didn’t carry out the deed she and her family would have been killed as punishment.

She was just 19-years-old when she stabbed Jack Nankervis with a knife and gardening tool in her Morwell home.

Mr Nankervis was in a drug-induced stupor and posed no threat to Sawyer-Thompson, yet she killed him on the order of boyfriend, Phillip Mifsud.

After the Supreme Court heard that Misfud had threatened to kill Sawyer-Thompson, she pleaded guilty to the now abolished charge of defensive homicide.

In sentencing her on Thursday, Justice Michael Croucher said the circumstances of the killing were “unique and very grave”.

“The threat did not emanate from the person who was killed, the attack was ghastly in its execution and Mr Nankervis was defenceless,” Justice Croucher said.

The victim’s mother was outraged at the sentence and the prosecution’s acceptance of the defensive homicide plea.

“It was a disgrace, it was a disgrace from the beginning, it should have never been put forward but that’s the law for you,” said Anna Nankervis.

“What she did to my 23-year-old son, you can’t put a sentence on that, I’m sorry, you can’t.”

The court heard that some of the violent acts committed on Sawyer-Thompson by Misfud included throwing fire crackers at her, making her watch snuff films, holding a gun to her head and pushing her down the stairs.

She was handed a non-parole period of seven years.

With time served on remand, she could be free in four years.