A thug who tried to kill his estranged wife and her friend in a ‘horrendous and merciless’ knife attack has been jailed for 19 years.
Lennie Smith, 39, was furious that Veronique Thomas-Smith had left him to babysit their three children at his home in Bluff Point, Western Australia.
Later that night in November 2016 he got three knives from the kitchen and told his young boy: ‘I’m going to kill your mum’.
Victim: Veronique Thomas-Smith was stabbed by her estranged husband Lennie Smith who tried to kill her in a ‘chilling’ attack
Smith broke into his 36-year-old wife’s home where she and her friend Kris Battilana, 33, were sleeping.
When Mr Battilana squared up to him, Smith slashed him in the face and neck before turning on his wife and stabbing her neck, body and legs.
He then heard Mr Battilana crying for help, walked over to him and nearly sliced one of his fingers off before cutting a major artery in his neck.
Ms Thomas-Smith managed to escape the house, but Smith followed a trail of her blood to a neighbour’s porch where he sliced her breast and lay on top of her before police arrived.
Justice Janine Pritchard said the attack was ‘calm and chilling’. She said Smith wanted to ‘mutilate’ his former partner in a ‘desire for retribution.’
Kris Battilana (pictured) squared up to the intruder but was slashed in the face and neck
The pair had been together for 15 years before falling out. A restraining order had been placed on Smith just 26 days before the attack.
Defence lawyer Alana Woldon admitted the attack was ‘prolonged’ and ‘utterly terrifying for his victims’ but insisted Smith told his son he was going to ‘hurt’ not ‘kill’ his mother.
Smith was jailed for 19 years, 17 without parole, after pleading guilty to two charges of attempted murder and one charge of aggravated home burglary.
After the sentencing, Mr Battilana, who bears gruesome scars from the attack, said: ‘The night it happened was absolutely horrific. I can’t explain it. There was just blood everywhere.
‘That’s why it was so hard to deal with it for so long, because I couldn’t black it out.
He added: ‘If anything is worthwhile out of it, I mean the kids have a mother, but I wouldn’t want to go through it again.’
Ms Thomas-Smith said her friend had saved her life by distracting Smith, giving her time to run away, reported Abc.
At the Supreme Court of Western Australia (pictured), Smith was jailed for 19 years, 17 without parole, after pleading guilty to two charges of attempted murder and one charge of aggravated home burglary