Steak Knife And Chips Row

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday November 17, 1998

A 59-year-old Queensland woman stabbed her boyfriend with a steak knife because he wouldn't send back an extra bowl of chips which arrived with their meal, a court heard in Burnie, Tasmania.

Instead of completing a 10-day fly-drive holiday in Tasmania, widower Brian King, also 59, spent the next week in hospital recovering from a stab wound.

A Supreme Court jury yesterday heard the bizarre story of how the Queensland couple, who had been friends and holiday companions since 1991 following the death of Mr King's wife, fell out over a counter meal in Strahan, western Tasmania.

It was August 31, 1997, and they had just heard that Princess Diana had been killed in Paris.

Mr King, of Woody Point, Queensland, and Anne Dawn Downey, also of Queensland, ordered steak sandwiches and a side order of chips.

But when the steak sandwiches arrived with chips as part of the order, they argued about whether to send back the extra bowl. Things went from bad to worse.

Mr King loosened the top of the salt shaker and when Downey went to put salt on her meal the contents spilt all over her food.

``She squirted him in the face with sauce and then almost immediately threw a steak sandwich in his face," Crown Prosecutor Tony Jacobs told the jury.

``When he stood up to leave she stabbed him in the abdomen with a steak knife then ran from the hotel."

In his evidence before the court Mr King said Downey had appeared angry when the salt had spilt on her meal, and after tomato sauce had been squirted and food thrown he had got up to leave the bar.

``I decided it was best to leave and said if she was into public humiliation she could stay but I was leaving," he told the court. ``I went to get off the stool and she picked up the steak knife and stabbed me.

``After the stab she walked away. Initially I didn't know I'd been stabbed, I thought I'd been punched, but then I realised I was bleeding and asked the bar staff for medical assistance, then I collapsed."

Downey, who was charged with unlawful wounding, cried softly in the dock while Mr King gave his evidence.

Defence counsel Tamara Jago put to Mr King that Downey was an avid follower of the Royal Family and had been upset earlier in the day at news that Princess Diana had been killed. Mr King said everyone had been upset at the news and denied making a joke about the death.

The trial continues.

© 1998 Illawarra Mercury

Back to News Index | Back to Home