Deranged killer who choked and stabbed his girlfriend to death makes chilling confession to police 

A self-confessed alcoholic who choked and stabbed his estranged girlfriend to death, staying with her ‘until she went cold’, has told police no AVO was going to stop his violence. 

Russell Brian Wood, 27, viciously attacked his partner Sarah Brown, 34, with a kitchen knife over an argument he ‘couldn’t remember’ in her Whalan Western Sydney home. 

In the aftermath of the murder, Wood made a series of bizarre and chilling confessions to police, admitting that ‘no AVO was ever going to keep me away from her,’ and ‘I just did a domestic violence course’.  

Ms Brown had taken out an apprehended violence order against her future killer, prohibiting him from approaching or making any contact.

But it wasn’t enough to deter the deranged former lover from turning up to her home on the night of September 30 in 2017 to lie in wait until she returned. 

‘I grabbed her, spun her around, grabbed her by the neck, dropped her to the ground, wrapped my legs around her legs and stretched her out,’ Wood, who had Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, said. 

After pleading guilty to the murder in October, Wood was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday to 25-and-a-half years in jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and one month.  

Wood will spend at least 19 years in jail after attacking his partner Sarah Brown, 34, (pictured) with a kitchen knife over an argument he ‘couldn’t remember’ in her Western Sydney home

He said he couldn’t remember what they had been fighting over but she had told him to get out of the house. 

Police were called to the property hours after the stabbing where they found Wood, curled up next to Ms Brown, crying and saying ‘please don’t be dead, baby, you can’t be dead’ among other things. 

Justice Geoffrey Bellew said Wood had a ‘flagrant disregard’ for the orders made to protect Ms Brown.

‘The deceased was murdered in an atmosphere of serious domestic violence,’ the judge said.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Geoffrey Bellew jailed him for 25-and-a-half years with a non-parole period of 19 years and one month

He concluded the murder was further aggravated by Wood’s intoxication.

The ‘on-again, off-again’ couple had been drinking together earlier that evening at a tavern in Mount Druitt but Woods left before Ms Brown and waited at her home until she arrived after midnight.

Their relationship had ended one week prior to the murder, according to the agreed facts.

It was ‘inconceivable’ – based on his record of domestic violence assaults – that the self-confessed alcoholic ‘did not realise his ingestion of excessive alcohol would cause him to become violent’, Justice Bellew said.

Wood’s sentence was backdated meaning he’ll be eligible for parole from October 2036 when he’ll be 45.

 Police were called to the property hours after the stabbing where they found Wood, curled up next to Ms Brown (pictured), crying and saying ‘please don’t be dead, baby, you can’t be dead’ among other things