Sheree Turnbull tells Jack Mulligan’s mum ‘I know the pain’

A mother-of-seven who stabbed a young man to death in Sydney’s inner west has told the victim’s mother she also knows how it feels to lose a child.

A mother of seven who stabbed a young man to death in a Sydney housing commission tower has told the victim’s mother she also knows how it feels to lose a child.

Sharee Lorraine Turnbull, 31, has pleaded guilty to the stabbing murder of Jack Mulligan, 25, at the notorious Johanna O’Dea Court tower in Camperdown on September 29, 2019.

Jack Mulligan’s aunt Carolyn Holder and mother Karen Mulligan, at the NSW Supreme Court. Picture:Justin Lloyd.

A sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court today heard Turnbull gave birth to her second child at age 17, when she was just 24 weeks pregnant.

The baby took a single breath in Dubbo Base Hospital and died, the court heard.

Turnbull, a long-time drug addict, broke down in tears as she gave evidence before Justice Peter Hamill while Mr Mulligan’s mother Karen Mulligan sat in the front row of the public gallery.

Sharee Turnbull told the court about her shocking upbringing.

“I feel a lot of pain for her … I know what the pain is like to lose a child,” Turnbull said.

“I regret everything.

“It’s something I have to face because I am responsible.”

But Turnbull could not give Ms Mulligan a reason for her son’s death, saying she could not recall what motivated her to stab him that night.

“I’d love to know why,” Ms Mulligan told The Daily Telegraph outside court.

“I‘ve got no animosity against the woman, I really don’t, I have no feelings for her.

“I just wish that the judge would see she’s dangerous in society, dangerous to the public.”

Jack Mulligan died in a pool of his own blood in September 2019.

An autopsy of Mr Mulligan’s body revealed 18 stab wounds and “scattered superficial blunt force injuries”, according to a statement of agreed facts.

The document said police became concerned for Mr Mulligan when they saw him the day before the murder as there was blood dripping from his knees and he was repeatedly closing his eyes. He told police he had just taken Xanax and Turnbull told them “I’ve just been looking after him”.

Turnbull was on parole when she killed Mr Mulligan - released four months earlier over another attack in which she plunged a knife into someone’s chest.

She said she began smoking marijuana at the age of 14, having endured a neglectful childhood with an alcoholic mother.

She began injecting speed after she lost her baby and later turned to methamphetamine.  

Her drug abuse took place amid shocking domestic violence in successive relationships, she told the court. She said she sustained fractured sockets, a broken jaw and black eyes.

Justice Hamill will sentence Turnbull on December 16.