The heartless killer who repeatedly slashed his wife in front of their young daughters will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Karen Gilliland was killed at the hands of her husband Nigel Gilliland in a Rockhampton home in June 2020, as police described the scene as one of the worst they’d ever seen.
Karen, who was a hospital worker at the time, lived with Nigel and their three kids, a boy aged 14 and girls aged 11 and six, in Rockhampton, QLD.
On the evening of June 23rd 2020, Karen took her two daughter and fled to a nearby home five minutes away, which had been rented by Karen’s parents so she could find refuge when he became violent.
In a fit of rage, Nigel drank half a bottle of wine and swallowed some painkillers before driving to the nearby property.
Before he left, he turned to his son and said, “My daughters just got taken away from me. Goodbye. See you in the next life. Please forgive me for what I’m about to do.”
When he arrived, there was a brief confrontation between the two before he attacked.
“You removed a knife from your pocket and with your 11-year-old daughter in the bedroom, as well as your six-year-old daughter in the bedroom, you walked towards their mother and stabbed her in the back,” Queensland Supreme Court Justice Graeme Crow said in sentencing Gilliland on Monday.
“You continued to stab Karen as both daughters screamed.”
