James Leonard Fairhall sentenced for murdering Noeline Dalzell

A man who stabbed his ex-partner to death while her children were trying to protect her has been sentenced for his “despicable violence”.

Noeline Dalzell was killed by her former partner James Fairhall.

A Victorian father who reached over his children to stab their mother in a jealous rage has been jailed for more than two decades for his “despicable violence”.

James Leonard Fairhall was on Friday sentenced in the Supreme Court to 25 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of murdering Noeline Dalzell.

He had argued his actions were not murder, and instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The court heard the couple’s three children, aged 13 to 16, had tried to get in between their father and mother to stop the attack at their Seaford home on February 4, 2020.

Setting a non-parole period of 18 ½ years, Justice Jane Dixon told Fairhall, 47, that his children’s lives would never be the same after losing their mother at the hands of their father in a shocking domestic violence incident they had desperately tried to stop.

“You stabbed Noeline in front of your three children while they tried to deter you and protect their mother,” Justice Dixon said.

Noeline Dalzell’s three children tried to protect her before she was stabbed to death by Fairhall.

“As a smaller woman faced by a larger man armed with a knife, Noeline had no chance of escaping or defending herself.”

She said the “tragic legacy” of his crime is that his three children had lost both parents.

“There is an enormous hole left in their lives by the loss of their mother — three young lives forever changed by your despicable violence,” Justice Dixon said.

The three children had told police how they screamed at their dad to leave their mother alone as he chased Ms Dalzell, 49, around the house with a knife when they got home from school.

When she escaped to one of the children’s bedrooms, he followed.

With the two eldest children standing in front of their mother to protect her, he leaned over and thrusted the knife into the left side of Ms Dalzell’s neck.

It was only then that his 15-year-old son was able to tackle him to the ground, causing him to drop the weapon.

While Ms Dalzell was able to run outside and alert neighbours, she soon after collapsed in the driveway.

Despite efforts to revive her, she died.

Justice Dixon said family violence murders were a scourge on our community and should be denounced.

“(Ms Dalzell) was killed in her own home where she was entitled to feel safe,” Justice Dixon said.

She said there was a history of family violence between the pair.

“Even the desperate attempts from your children didn’t distract you,” she said.

The pair had been in an on-off relationship since 2002, but were separated at the time.

Justice Dixon said Fairhall had become enraged after finding out three days before the killing that Ms Dalzell had started a new relationship with her high school friend, Kevin Blain.

“You attacked Noeline for the self-centred reason that she had rejected you in favour of someone else,” she said.