Who is David Stanford Kellett?
David Stanford Kellett is the ex-husband of Katharine Knight. David and Katherine Knight were married for 10 years. David first met his co-worker Katherine Ktnigh in 1973.
Kellett engaged in heavy drinking which comes from two traumatic incidents from his previous railway job in Coffs Harbour: first when his best friend was killed in front of him in a shunting accident, and later when he rescued injured occupants of a school bus in Kempsey which had been struck by a train, killing six children.
He eventually lost the job due to his deteriorating behavior and performance, but he soon got work at the nearby Aberdeen abattoir and became close friends with Knight’s brother.
Most often if David Stanford Kellett got into a fight, Knight would step in and back him up. In Aberdeen, she was well known for physically threatening anyone who upset her. Kellett married Katherine Ktnigh in 1974, at her request, with the couple arriving at the service on her motorcycle with a very intoxicated David Stanford Kellett on the pillion. As soon as they arrived, Knight’s mother Barbara gave Kellett some advice:
She said;
‘You better watch this one or she’ll fucking kill you. Stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you’re fucked, don’t ever think of playing up on her [cheating on her], she’ll fuckin’ kill you.’ She told me she’s got something loose. She’s got a screw loose somewhere.”
On the wedding night, Knight tried to strangle Kellett and she explained that it was because he fell asleep after only having intercourse three times.
Due to the violent form of their marriage, one day Knight who was heavily pregnant burned all of David Stanford Kellett’s clothing and shoes hitting him across the back of the head with a frying pan, because he arrived home late from a Darts competition after reaching the finals.
David Stanford Kellett for the fear of his life fled before collapsing in a neighbor’s house and was treated for a severely fractured skull. Knight changed her behavior because the police wanted to charge her and convinced Kellett into dropping the charges against her.
In May 1976, after Knight has given birth to their child, Melissa Ann, Kellett left Knight for another woman and they left for Queensland because he could not put up with the constant abuse. Knight was seen pushing her new baby in a pram down the main street, violently throwing the pram from side to side the next day.
She got admitted to St Elmo’s Hospital in Tamworth, where she was diagnosed with postnatal depression and spent several weeks recovering. After she was released, Knight placed Melissa who was just two-month-old on a railway line shortly before a train was due. She again took an ax, went into town, and threatened to kill several people.
David Stanford Kellett’s daughter, Melissa was saved by a beggar known in the district as”Old Ted”, who ate near the railway line before the train passed. Knight was arrested and taken to St Elmo’s Hospital again, but this time she recovered and checked herself out the following day.
A few days later, Knight slashed the face of a woman with one of her knives and demands she drives her to Queensland to find Kellett. The woman was able to escape after they stopped at the service station, but when the police arrived Knight has already taken a boy hostage and was threatening him with the knife.
The police were able to overpower her when she attacked her with a broom and was admitted to the Morisset Psychiatric Hospital. Knight told the nurses she had intended to kill the mechanic at the service station because he had repaired Kellett’s car, which allowed him to leave, and then kill both David Stanford Kellett and his mother when she gets to Queensland.
When Kellett Stanford was informed of the incident, he left his girlfriend and moved to Aberdeen with his mother to support Knight. When Knight was released on 9 August 1976, she was given into the care of her mother-in-law along with Kellett and they moved to Ipswich, a city west of Brisbane, where she got a job at the Dinmore meatworks. Kellett and Knight had another daughter, Natasha Maree on 6 March 1983.
In 1984, Knight left David Stanford Kellett and moved, she first went to her parent’s house in Aberdeen, and then to a rented house close to her work, the government gave her a Housing Commission residence in Aberdeen.
Where is David Stanford Kellett’s ex-wife now?
David Stanford Kellett’s ex-wife, Katherine Knight is the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She was convicted for the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in February 2000, and is currently imprisoned at the Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre in New South Wales
