A 21-year-old woman has been jailed for stabbing her neighbour twice in the neck with sewing scissors during a fight that started over a dog.
Taycian Hope Frost pleaded guilty to wounding and was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Kate Cuthbertson on November 11.
The attack happened on the night of February 27 outside Frost’s unit in a Glenorchy complex where both women lived.
The court heard Frost nudged her neighbour’s dog away with her foot because she believed it was about to attack her. Her neighbour accused her of kicking it.
Justice Cuthbertson said Frost called the woman a “mouthy s–t”, said words to the effect of “you wanna have a go do ya” and threatened to stab her.
The two women then fought. Frost pushed the woman against a railing, stabbed her in the neck and headbutted her.
She stabbed the woman again in the back of the neck after she fell to her knees. Frost ran back to her unit and called Triple Zero (000).
The court heard the neighbour went back to her own unit, grabbed a samurai sword and banged on Frost’s door with it while Frost was on the phone.
Police arrested Frost at her unit, where she admitted the stabbing. She told officers she carried scissors everywhere because she had been assaulted in the past.
The woman spent three days in hospital and needed surgery. In her victim impact statement, she said she had been left with a six-centimetre scar, nightmares and worsening PTSD.
The court heard Frost had a violent upbringing and had since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and complex PTSD.
Justice Cuthbertson said a report from a forensic psychiatrist indicated drug use and the dispute with the neighbour were the main reasons for the attack.
“Wounding is a serious offence. In this case, you caused two wounds to a very vulnerable part of the complainant’s body,” the judge said.
“It is very scary to think what would have happened if you had hit an artery or a vein.”
At the time of the stabbing, Frost was already on a six-month suspended sentence imposed by the Hobart Magistrates Court on January 31, 2025.
That sentence was for violent offences, including punching a 72-year-old woman at the Glenorchy bus mall, headbutting a bus passenger, throwing a glass bottle at her boyfriend’s mother at Eastlands and shoving a schoolgirl into a bin.
Justice Cuthbertson ordered Frost to serve the six-month sentence, backdated to February 27.
For the wounding, she imposed a further 12-month jail sentence starting May 26, with six months suspended.
After her release, Frost will be subject to an 18-month community correction order requiring drug and mental health treatment.
