Jacinthe Leilani Gourley, 27, pleads guilty to wounding a former boyfriend

A mum has been handed a jail term after pleading guilty to wounding her former partner in an argument over domestic duties.

Jacinthe Leilani Gourley has pleaded guilty to wounding her partner with a kitchen knife.

A court has heard how a stressed mum with a new baby lost her temper and stabbed her boyfriend with a kitchen knife after he wouldn’t help with the house work.

The young mother of five had travelled 5km to a house where her boyfriend was socialising with his family, Ipswich District Court has heard.

The court accepted she had not planned to wound him with the knife but only to “pop his tyres”.

The court on Wednesday heard the stabbing followed a series of text messages between the pair over several hours before the domestic violence incident with the woman trying to get him to come home and help her with chores leading up to a rental inspection.

Appearing for sentence, Jacinthe Leilani Gourley, 27, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding as part of a domestic violence offence, at Redbank Plains on July 9, 2020.

The court heard Gourley had stabbed the man once in the abdomen.

Crown prosecutor Clayton Wallis said Gourley had no criminal history and had been in a relatively short relationship with the man to whom she had a baby.

The man had been at a relative’s home that afternoon and there had been a series of communications between them with Gourley complaining of his lack of assistance, Mr Wallis said.

Mr Wallis argued that there had been a level of premeditation to the wounding, shown by the text messages sent between 4.30pm and the stabbing at 7pm.

He recounted some messages in which the man had first stated: ‘What do you want. Clean the house up’.

Subsequent messages from Gourley stated: ‘I told you you’ll be the last person who f***s with me’.

There had been comments about the baby continually crying, preventing her cleaning up for a house inspection the next day.

Messages from Gourley included, “come back to me or regret it choose 1”; and “you think I won’t do nothing” (with crying and laughing emojis).

She also stated “you’re a c*** supposed to be my partner and can’t even help me”.

“You know we have the inspection you didn’t lend a hand … little bitch.

“You won’t clean you making me wild. You’ll regret it”.

Mr Wallis said there had also been phone calls made by her that went unanswered.

At 7.03pm there had been the message saying, “I’m so sorry”, the court heard.

Mr Wallis said a message had been sent by the man when he was likely to have been in the ambulance, and where she responded saying “lucky you’re not dead”.

She had also stated “I just blacked out. Hope you better soon. Sorry”.

Mr Wallis said she had left the house and when asked by police what happened, she burst into tears.

She had thrown away the knife but told police immediately where it was located.

After consideration of defence argument from barrister Allana Davie and all material before the court, Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC found the wounding was not premeditated.

He took into account her immediate remorse and apology, and that when speaking to police soon after had told officers she had the knife only to “pop his tyres”.

The court heard that the man had not co-operated with the prosecution case, and not supplied a victim impact statement.

Mr Wallis said the injured man while in the ambulance that night said he did not want to make an official complaint.

Judge Horneman-Wren said the man sustained a serious wound.

“The injury (abdomen) he suffered was quite serious and required surgery,” he said.

Judge Horneman-Wren said she expressed remorse and had no criminal history.

She was looking after her baby and four other children at the time while trying to put the house into a position where it would be acceptable for inspection.

Gourley was convicted and sentenced to a 2 ½ year jail term, with immediate release to parole.