A well-regarded dog trainer filmed herself admitting that she ‘just stabbed some c***’ who had ‘pressed (her) buttons’ after a bloody altercation with her neighbour, a court has heard.
Courtnie Alexandria Donlan, 29, appeared in Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday after being charged with five offences related to the knife attack.
She wore a prison-issued green T-shirt and her hair slicked back into a bun as she pleaded guilty to intimidation, reckless wounding, and wielding a knife in public.
The remaining charges of wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and using an offensive weapon with the intent of committing an indictable offence were withdrawn.
The court documents reveal Donlan was walking her dogs outside her apartment block in Malabar in the early hours of June 11 last year when she crossed paths with her neighbour, Aaron Holten.
The 38-year-old asked her for a cigarette and she invited him up to her apartment, where they chatted for hours while drinking vodka and Red Bull.
According to the court documents, Donlan asked her neighbour to leave in the late morning.
She later told police Mr Holten had pinned her up against the wall and attempted to engage her in sexual activity.
Eastern suburbs dog trainer Courtnie Donlan has admitted to stabbing her neighbour with a kitchen knife.
Courtnie Donlan promotes herself as a specialist in obedience, puppy training, and behaviour modification
However, the facts that Donlan has endorsed as accurate state only that she asked him to leave ‘suddenly’. Mr Holten has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
According to court documents, as he began collecting his belongings, Mr Holten said he saw her carrying a kitchen knife in her hand.
The dog trainer held the weapon aloft before stabbing Mr Holten in the arm he raised to protect himself.
The court documents reveal Ms Donlan kept brandishing the knife and advancing towards her neighbour as he backed out of the apartment.
‘Are you fucking leaving? Fucking leave,’ she told him.
They were heard swearing at each other as they entered the common area outside the Bilga Crescent apartment complex, where a witness saw Ms Donlan pointing her knife towards her neighbour.
The witness told police that Mr Holten threw a laundry basket at the dog trainer but she was not deterred and ‘continued to ark up at him’.
The altercation lasted around 15 minutes and ended after Mr Holten threw a rock in Donlan’s direction.
He then ran for help after realising he was ‘in a bad way’, according to the court documents.
Medical records show the 38-year-old sustained a deep 1.7cm stab wound to his right upper arm, a puncture wound to his chest, and a deep 1.4cm laceration to his ring finger.
He was taken to hospital in a stable condition and discharged later the same day.
She has also pleaded guilty to intimidating the man and wielding a knife in a public place.
When police arrived at the scene, they noticed a trail of blood droplets along the footpath.
Officers also saw there marks that appeared to be blood spatters on Ms Donlan’s t-shirt and she was sporting bruises and bloody cuts.
Photos of the dog trainer’s injuries show a large bruise on her shoulder, a cut on her neck, and injuries on her legs and hands.
She told officers she couldn’t remember how she had gotten the cuts and bruises.
Although Ms Donlan struggled to remember the night clearly, the videos on her phone elucidated her state of mind after the altercation.
In one video taken at 7.34am, she said ‘bruh, I just let some random dude in my house’.
Four hours later, another video showed her in a distressed state with blood on her face.
‘Guys I’m not even kidding. F***ing c*** tried to fucking attack me,’ the 29-year-old said.
She filmed another five videos in quick succession, which ranged from telling a friend ‘I just stabbed some c***’ to providing instructions on how to care for her dogs in her absence.
‘I think I’m about to go to fucking jail cause I stabbed some c***,’ Ms Donlan recorded herself saying.
‘I f***ing tried so f***ing hard but this f***ing c*** pushed my buttons. There’s so much f***ing blood and I don’t know.’
The dog trainer has garnered a number of five star reviews online
On Tuesday, her lawyer told the court that Donlan has ‘significant and longstanding mental health issues’.
She will return to court in November to be sentenced for the bloody stabbing attack.
Donlan touts herself as a professional dog trainer based in Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, with multiple five stars reviews praising her professionalism and skills.
‘Very professional, knowledgeable, polite and effective dog trainer,’ a two-year-old review attested.
‘Courtnie was really great to work with. She explained everything professionally and confidently,’ another reviewer wrote in 2022.
‘You can tell she has a lot of experience and works with lots of dogs.’
Donlan promotes herself as a specialist in obedience, puppy training, and behaviour modification.
Her services are priced at $300 for an initial 90-minute consultation and $200 an hour for private sessions.
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