CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — A woman began a lifelong sentence behind bars Friday, never to be released, for murdering and skinning her boyfriend in a cannibal orgy.

A court was told former abattoir worker Katherine Knight stabbed her partner John Price at least 37 times with a butcher's knife, skinned his body, cooked his head and

The murderess worked as a meat slicer at a slaughterhouse.

served him up in dishes with nameplates for each of his children.

Knight, 46, became the first woman in Australia whose file was marked never to be released from jail after pleading guilty to butchering 44-year-old Price in his home in Aberdeen, 200 km (124 miles) north-west of Sydney, in February last year.

"She is starting her life sentence in a high security unit of Mulawa jail in western Sydney and this really does mean life under truth-in-sentencing laws introduced in 1990," a court spokesman told Reuters.

His head, face, nose, ears, neck, torso, genital organs, and legs, were removed as a single pelt.

New South Wales Supreme Court judge Barry O'Keefe, handing down the sentence, said Knight, in a new black night gown, showed Price "no mercy" when she attacked him after the couple had apparently had sex, according to media reports.

Price's attempt to escape the frenzied attack — planned 48 hours earlier — culminated with him getting out of the house only to be dragged back in by Knight.

O'Keefe said Knight, who had worked as a meat slicer in abattoirs, skinned Price with such expertise and a steady hand that his skin, including that of his head, face, nose, ears, neck, torso, genital organs, and legs, was removed to form one pelt.

"The excised parts of Mr. Price were then taken to the kitchen and at some stage, after she peeled and prepared various vegetables, she cooked Mr. Price's head in a large pot with a number of vegetables she had prepared so as to produce a sickening stew," he told the court.

The gruesome steaks were left — with vegetables and vindictive notes — as meals for the victim's son and daughter.

O'Keefe said Knight, who had worked as a meat slicer in abattoirs, skinned Price with such expertise and a steady hand that his skin, including that of his head, face, nose, ears, neck, torso, genital organs, and legs, was removed to form one pelt.

"The gruesome steaks were then arranged on plates together with the vegetables which she had baked and left as meals for the son and daughter of the deceased accompanied by vindictive notes."

O'Keefe said Knight's evil actions came from resentment arising out of her rejection by Price after a six-year relationship, her impending expulsion from his home, and his refusal to share his assets with her, particularly his house which he wanted to keep for his children.