Tania Marpoondin, 49, sentenced over drunken dispute over love triangle which escalated to street stabbing

A drunken dispute over a love triangle involving two women and a man escalated into a potentially lethal public stabbing just on dusk in Cairns’ Lake Street, a court has heard.

A DRUNKEN dispute over a love triangle involving two women and a man escalated into a potentially lethal public stabbing just on dusk in Cairns’ Lake Street, a court has heard.

Tania Marpoondin, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful wounding in the Cairns District Court on Monday.

Crown prosecutor Matt Hancock played CCTV footage of the November 23, 2021 incident to the court, which showed the complainant, a 49-year-old Earlville woman, throwing a cup of alcohol at Marpoondin and assaulting her.

A clearly intoxicated Marpoondin is then seen attacking the woman, jamming a knife with a 15cm blade into her right side.

Mr Hancock said the injury was “significant”.

The blade lacerated the woman’s liver and she suffered haemorrhagic shock due to blood loss.

“She required three staples and a blood transfusion and was kept in hospital for about six days,” Mr Hancock told the court.

The court also heard Marpoondin had a “deplorable” criminal history littered with offences of violence and alcohol-related offending, including being jailed on a charge of grievous bodily harm in 2013 over an occasion where she stabbed her abusive ex-partner five times.

Defence barrister Michael Dalton said his client had lived most of her life in Aurukun until she was incarcerated in 2013 and had since lived in Cairns.

He said his client was significantly intoxicated at the time and had a blood alcohol reading of .372 when taken to Cairns Hospital.

“The argument was about a man – he had effectively been having a relationship with both my client and the complainant and the complainant attacked my client over jealousy issues,” Mr Dalton said.

He acknowledged Marpoondin’s “spontaneous” response to being attacked went too far.

Judge Katherine McGinness accepted Marpoondin’s behaviour was in response to a “nasty assault on you by the complainant” but noted the injury inflicted could have had “lethal consequences”.

Marpoondin was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with a parole release date at 14 months, with 233 days in pre-sentence custody declared.

Originally published as Tania Marpoondin, 49, sentenced over drunken dispute over love triangle which escalated to street stabbing