Hannah Quinn avoids jail for samurai sword killing

Hannah Quinn has avoided jail time after going on the run with her lover who had used a samurai sword to fatally strike a drugged-up home invader on the head in Sydney’s inner west.

Hannah Quinn has avoided jail time after going on the run with her lover, who used a samurai sword to fatally strike a drugged-up home invader on the head in Sydney’s inner west.

Quinn, 26, of Woodford, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after a jury found her guilty last December of being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter over the incident in August 2018.

Hannah Quinn (in pink) with her family at the Supreme Court in Sydney ahead of her sentencing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Prosecutors had argued she knew balaclava-clad rapper Jett McKee, 30, had died when she ran away with Blake Davis, 31, from the bloody scene on a street outside their Forest Lodge apartment.

But Justice Natalie Adams said she wasn’t satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt on the available evidence that Quinn knew Mr McKee was dead until later.

She sentenced Quinn to a two-year community corrections order.

Quinn grew tearful and took deep breaths before looking at her defence barrister Tom Hughes as her sentence was read out.

In a letter to the court she said she could not remember the last time she had a full night’s sleep and that she was living in hell every day.

Hannah Quinn told the court she couldn’t remember the last time she had had a full night’s sleep because of the incident. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Justice Adams said Quinn had gone out earlier in the day to buy takeaway breakfast before returning to Davis’ apartment when Mr McKee stormed the property and demanded money.

“Everyone was going about their everyday lives, Ms Quinn could never have anticipated that time that within minutes her life would be changed forever, that she and Mr Davis would be the victims of a violent home invasion by Jett McKee, that Mr Davis would go on to kill Mr McKee and she would be charged with his murder,” the judge said.

Outside court, Mr Hughes said he was happy with the result.

“It’s very just outcome in a very, very difficult matter, a fair judge and a good outcome,” he said.

Mr McKee’s girlfriend Averil Bowers was at the hearing and when asked to comment on the case said: “Jett’s family has been through enough”.

Quinn’s defence team had insisted the couple, who were daily cannabis users, had only been taking stock of what had happened before handing themselves in to police three days later.

Mr Hughes said no planning was behind the couple fleeing because they had been provoked by Mr McKee.

Davis, an actor who has appeared in Aussie comedy show Fat Pizza, was jailed last March for at least two years and nine months for Mr McKee’s manslaughter.

Justice Adams sentenced Davis to a maximum sentence of five years and three months after he was acquitted of murder by the jury but convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The judge had earlier directed the jury to find Quinn not guilty of murder.

Quinn and Davis, who have since got engaged, were in their downstairs unit when Mr McKee, who had an almost-fatal level of the drug ice in his system, stormed in armed with what they thought was a real gun and demanded money.

He had targeted them because they were small time cannabis dealers, the court heard.

Mr McKee, who had a baby on the way with Ms Bowers and gambling debts of around $40,000, knocked Davis out with knuckledusters before Quinn went after him outside of the property and yelled: “Who the f**k are you?”

Davis followed with an ornamental samurai sword he had been given as a birthday gift before fatally striking Mr McKee on the head.