Moreton woman Jessica Maree Laing narrowly avoids jail for bloody house party stabbing

A young southeast Queensland woman told police she couldn’t recall stabbing the man in his back following a drunken fight about cigarettes.

A young Moreton woman “blacked-out” and violently stabbed a man in the back during a drunken disagreement over cigarettes, the Brisbane District Court heard on Tuesday.

Jessica Maree Laing, 25, pleaded guilty to the unlawful wounding of Nathan George Parker at a house party in Morayfield on November 17, 2018.

The court heard Parker accused Laing’s then-boyfriend Jack McGrath of stealing his “smokes” and a physical altercation ensued.

Laing became scared for McGrath’s life as she watched the men wrestle each other to the floor, as she considered Parker to be a “intimidating and aggressive” man.

Jessica Maree Laing outside the Brisbane District Court where she was sentenced for a wounding. Photographer: Liam Kidston

She intervened with a box-cutting knife and stabbed Parker in the upper left part of his back.

The victim bled so profusely it soaked through his pants, though the wound itself was considered minor.

Laing, a Groves Christian College graduate, was still yelling at the complainant when McGrath picked her up and put her in the car.

“What did you expect me to do? He was hurting you!” Laing said to Mcgrath later, per documents tendered to the court.

“I had to get him away from us.”

In an interview with police on November 21 Laing claimed she had no memory of the stabbing and blamed bipolar, schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder for the outburst.

“The details are blurry,” Laing told a doctor, in a note read to the court by Judge David Kent.

“(I’d) fought people and s--t when blacked out before, it happens every time.”

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Jessica Maree Laing outside the Brisbane District Court where she was sentenced for a wounding. Photographer: Liam Kidston

The court heard Laing was not formally diagnosed with any of these conditions, but rather suffered from borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder and substance abuse problems, per a letter from her psychiatrist and tendered to the court.

Judge Kent characterised Laing’s behaviour as an excessive response in aiding self-defence, but noted McGrath had neither requested nor needed her to intervene.

Laing was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with immediate parole and cautioned against any further use of illegal substances.

“(They) can be like a bullet to the brain,” Judge Kent said.

“They have landed you here within a very narrow distance of going to prison.

“Next time the scary man may have his own knife, and you could be stabbed, or someone else could be stabbed and you could be serving life in prison.”