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A woman has escaped conviction after threatening a man with a knife, in front of his three-week old child, after he allegedly killed her pet cat.
The woman appeared before Inverell Local Court on Thursday, charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and stalking and intimidating to cause fear of physical harm.
"This is a pretty serious charge - usually bank robbers and drug addicts are charged with this," Magistrate Michael Antrum told the 18-year-old.
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Police statements tendered to the court outlined the woman had gone to the man's house armed with a 5.5cm pen knife, and demanded to see her cat.
The man's partner and three-week old child were present at the time, locked out of their own house by the upset woman.
The man had threatened to kill her pet earlier that day, and she demanded to see it.
"If you've killed it, I'll stab you," she screamed.
He lead her around the back to where his bins were located, while she was still wielding the knife with a raised arm and yelling "show me, show me".
The police had been called to the house, where they searched her and found the pen knife. She was arrested and taken back to the station where she declined an interview.
"What happened to the cat?" Magistrate Antrum asked the women's solicitor Mandy Mackenzie.
Mrs Mackenzie said the cat died, and the man had been charged in relation to the death.
Given her complete lack of criminal history, she was afforded the chance of a non-conviction for both charges.
Magistrate Antrum said the facts were unusual for someone with no criminal history and no prior convictions.
"I am sorry to hear about your cat, that's a terrible thing to happen," Magistrate Antrum said to her.
"It's important in future that when upsetting and disgusting things happen you don't respond with a knife."
She was placed on two nine-month conditional release orders, with an AVO put in place for two years.
The man was also charged following the incident and will appear at Inverell Local Court later this year.
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