A MUM has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years for murdering her partner with a steak knife.
Emma-Jayne Magson, 28, was caged today at Birmingham Crown Court following a retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal.
Emma-Jayne, of Sylvan Street, Leicester, killed 26-year-old James Knight with a single stab wound to the heart in March 2016 after a drunken row between the pair.
She denied murdering Knight at her first trial, claiming it was self defence, but was convicted later that year and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 17 years.
However, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in a judgment handed down in January last year.
It came after the court heard new psychiatric evidence showing the defence of diminished responsibility would have been available to Magson at her first trial.
Her barrister Clare Wade QC said at that hearing that Magson’s diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder “provides an explanation for her conduct and was a significant contributory factor”.
She said it was arguably “more likely than not that, at the time of the offence, (Magson) was suffering from diminished responsibility”.
Magson stood trial at Birmingham Crown Court where a jury again found her guilty of Knight’s murder, returning a majority verdict, earlier this month.
At the first trial in November 2016, a jury at Leicester Crown Court heard that Magson and Knight had a “volatile” relationship and had been in a drunken row in the run-up to the fatal attack.
Magson was described as “cold, brutal and manipulative” and was accused of “sacrificing” Knight by delaying calling emergency services for around 30 minutes.
Jailing Magson for life today, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker told her: “I regret I am unconvinced you have, as yet, any real remorse for having caused James Knight’s death.”
Magson’s application for a retrial was supported by campaign group Justice for Women.
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