Vic: 14 years' jail for brutal stabbing murder

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2009
Vic: 14 years' jail for brutal stabbing murder

By Daniel Fogarty

MELBOURNE, April 2 AAP - A man who murdered his girlfriend in a "brutal" and "vicious"

stabbing frenzy has been jailed for 14 years.

Clayton Foster, 32, "exploded" into a rage, inflicting 20 stab wounds, some 7cm deep,
on Laura Dabb, 46, after his heavily intoxicated girlfriend confronted him with a knife
at a home in Epping, north of Melbourne, in September 2007.

Ms Dabb allegedly claimed Foster was having an affair with the woman whose house they
were staying at.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard on Thursday that after the stabbing Foster made a
frantic triple-zero call, telling the operator he had slit his girlfriend's throat and
she was gurgling for air.

He told the operator he had tried to kill Ms Dabb, but now he did not want her to die.

Justice Robert Osborn said alcohol had made Foster uninhibited and inflamed his anger.

"You then lost all self-control and stabbed her repeatedly and mercilessly, overwhelming
her with violence in circumstances where she presented no real threat whatsoever to you,"

Justice Osborn said.

"The court must recognise the fundamental sanctity of human life and the significance
of its loss.

"It must seek so far as it is able to extend protection of the law to the marginalised
and vulnerable of our society such as Laura Dabb."

Foster, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to murder and must serve 10 years in prison
before being eligible for parole.

AAP df/gfr/sn/mn

KEYWORD: FOSTER

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