Jessica Silva has relived the moment she stabbed and killed her ex-partner after four years of emotional and physical abuse during an appeal for her manslaughter conviction to be overturned.
The now 26-year-old was handed a two-year suspended sentence over the stabbing death of her boyfriend James Polkinghorne on Mother’s Day, 2014.
Silva maintains it was a desperate act of self defence.
A video of Silva recounting the events which led to Polkinghorne’s death was played in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.
“He’s like, ‘In 30 seconds I’m going to come and rip the door down if you don’t come out’ and I said, ‘James, I don’t want to come out, I’m scared of you, please’,” Silva said in the interview, shaking and crying.
Polkinghorne had arrived outside her Marrickville home that evening in an ice-fuelled rage. She begged him to leave, but he punched her and ripped her clothing before engaging in a violent struggle with her brother, Miguel.
Panicked and in fear of her family’s safety, Silva ran inside to alert her father and grabbed a knife.
Top Comments
She was defending her brother, Feast. Furthermore, she was still in danger in her home. Self-defence is not precluded by the danger being immediate.
It's a hard one. Initially I agreed that he deserved it if he behaved as described but then re-reading it she removed herself from immediate danger (went inside) than came back with a knife. As soon as she came back out it went from self defence. Still understandable but not self defence.