A DELUSIONAL murderer, who thought he was Jesus, killed his girlfriend by repeatedly stabbing her to death with scissors before smothering her with a pillow and strangling her with tracksuit bottoms.
Shea Sturt, 33, was in a cannabis-psychotic state when he stabbed nurse Caitlin O’Brien up to five times at their Melbourne home in June last year.
Hours after the murder, Sturt begged police to arrest him, telling the officer how he strangled the popular nurse, ABC Australia reports.
After pleading guilty to murder, the killer was sentenced to 22 years in jail at Victoria Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Sturt, who was violent towards Caitlin throughout their relationship, had reportedly been having delusions before the murder – believing that he was Jesus, she was the devil and their neighbours were worshipping Satan, Australian Associated Press report.
The couple had been together since they were teens. He had a prior conviction for assaulting her in 2010.
In 2017, Caitlin said that Sturt had been violent towards her for seven out of the 10 years that they had been together.
Approximately one month before she died, Caitlin had a brain tumour removed but always lived in fear of her “increasingly erratic” boyfriend.
Caitlin was only 31 when “her life was cut short”, Justice Christopher Beale told the court.
“You murdered her in her own home, a place where she should’ve been safe.
“It was not a one-off incident of domestic violence.”
It was not a one-off incident of domestic violence.”
Justice Christopher Beale
The court heard that Sturt had a schizophrenia-type personality disorder and smoked cannabis to feel calmer.
But Justice Beale said using cannabis was not the only way that Sturt could’ve tackled his anxiety.
“You were aware that cannabis might cause you to become violently psychotic,” the judge told Sturt.
On the morning of the murder, Sturt began talking to the victim about the end of the world.
Court documents revealed that he ripped her pants off to see if he “still felt anything” for Caitlin and held her down.
She managed to get away and ran to the bathroom where she armed herself with a pair of scissors.
Sturt overwhelmed her – stabbing her repeatedly with the scissors and smothering her with a pillow.
He tied tracksuit pants around her neck, showered and placed her credit card on her chest before leaving.
He reportedly pleaded with police to arrest him, reportedly saying: “I’ve just killed my girlfriend.”
When police told Sturt that he would be charged with murder, the killer replied “cool”.
Hours later welfare officers found a pair of pants tightly wrapped around Caitlin’s neck.
Sturt began to have delusions that he was Jesus and forced Caitlin to eat an apple so “she could be like Eve” and “enlightened” two days before the murder, AAP reported.
Chilling messages were exchanged where the nurse admitted that she was “scared” of Sturt murdering her.
“I would never hurt you”, Sturt told the victim.
“I hope so. I get scared,” Caitlin replied.
“Of what,” Sturt asked.
“You murdering me,” she said.
Justice Beale told the court that Sturt was remorseful and suggested there was a “reasonable prospect” that the killer could be rehabilitated.
Caitlin’s sister Martine said that on the day of the murder the family “lost two people”.
“I just hope that he [Sturt] uses the next few years to rehabilitate himself”, she said.
“That’s what my sister would’ve wanted. She would’ve wanted him to get better.
“She would have wanted him to get help. And I really hope that he does that.”
Sturt has to serve at least 16 years in jail before being eligible for parole.
