Michael James Quinn found guilty of murdering girlfriend Cherie Vize

A JEALOUS man who stabbed his on-off girlfriend five times in the neck and left her to die in a “scene of carnage” has been found guilty of murder.

Cherie Vize was murdered by her boyfriend Michael James Quinn. Picture: Facebook

MICHAEL James Quinn, who stabbed his girlfriend Cherie Vize five times in the neck and left her to die in a “scene of carnage”, has been found guilty of murder.

He murdered his 25-year-old girlfriend before turning the knife on himself, leaving him quadriplegic.

Quinn had denied murdering his on-again, off-again lover on July 2013 on the lawn at his parents’ Wollongong home. He has given evidence he was trying to kill himself with a knife when Ms Vize tried to stop him.

In the struggle she was fatally wounded, he told his judge-alone murder trial last month.

But Crown prosecutor Mark Hobart SC put it to him he should have stopped what he was doing if Ms Vize had “placed herself in danger” trying to wrestle the knife from him.

“Had I been in a state of mind to do so, I would have,” Quinn said. “When I self harm so far, I can’t stop.”

After Ms Vize was stabbed, Quinn turned the knife on himself. His self-inflicted wounds have left him a quadriplegic.

The Crown case is he stabbed her to death after recently discovering Ms Vize was sleeping with another man. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, with his defence team arguing her death was accidental and his mental state was substantially impaired at the time.

“Ms Vize was a peaceful person. Her passing has caused much sadness to her family and friends,” NSW Supreme Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones said on Thursday following a month-long, judge-alone trial.

‘A peaceful person.’ Picture: Facebook

Cherie Vize was stabbed five times in the neck. Picture: Facebook

Quinn gave evidence at the trial and denied he inflicted the fatal blows on purpose.

He insisted he thought Ms Vize had gone inside from the garden where she had been smoking, and admitted she “would still be alive’ if he had just given her the knife.

Mr Hobart said to him she wasn’t alive. “She’s dead, and you stabbed her to death, didn’t you?’

He denied he killed her deliberately.

Quinn said he “didn’t attack her”, but could not answer how she received the other wounds. “It’s difficult to take notes while you’re fighting for a knife ... How could I possibly be aware to what happened ... The mechanics, in precise detail.”

After she was stabbed Quinn told the court he placed his hand “over her wound” to stop the bleeding and gave her a kiss and cuddle. He did so because it was the “right thing to do” and he felt a “duty” to protect her, he said.

Mr Hobart said: “You just stabbed her, there’s blood pouring everywhere ... You saw the blood?”

Quinn said he saw the blood.

“You knew she wasn’t going to be all right ... How could you possibly think it was going to be alright?”

He told the court of seeing the knife sticking out from her neck.

“I noticed the blade was in her neck. The first thing I did was take it out and throw it on the ground.”

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.