A woman who murdered her new boyfriend, stabbing him in the back with a large carving knife on Windang’s Picnic Island, has called a crown prosecutor a "lying cow" in an emotional courtroom outburst.
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Rachel Impson screamed the prosecutor had "accused me of things I didn't do" after she broke down following her evidence at a NSW Supreme Court sentence hearing on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old had just denied under cross-examination that she killed Michael "Micky" Insley in anger because she believed he was involved in the death of her cat.
Impson was found guilty by a jury in April of murdering Mr Insley one night in October 2014.
The couple had been dating for a few weeks when she stabbed him at Windang's Picnic Island where she'd been living in a tent.
While Impson always admitted killing Mr Insley, her lawyer argued at trial she was substantially impaired due to her bipolar affective disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Impson on Wednesday said she "couldn't be more sorry" for killing the 39-year-old, who was described by family members as a happy-go-lucky brother and son who was always willing to help others.
"It's all I think about," she said.
"It's part of me. It's part of who I am. It's part of who I'll be forever and I'll always be sorry."
But her evidence turned combative during her cross-examination by the prosecutor, with Impson denying she murdered her boyfriend over the death of her cat Angel.
The Crown says Impson believed Mr Insley had a hand in Angel's death when she emerged from her tent armed with the knife and angrily stabbed him in the back as he tried to run away.
A day earlier she'd accused Mr Insley of killing Angel in a message telling him: "Watch your back c***."
But Impson claims she was actually afraid that night and Mr Insley had the previous night "footy-tackled" her.
She said he was pushing her to prevent her leaving the island when she struck him.
"(The cat) was my pet. Yes he was important to me, but I didn't stab Michael in the back because I suspected he may have had a hand in Angel's death," she said.
Impson denied having a history of making up allegations about people when she didn't get her way.
Mr Insley's sister, Linda Reynolds, says his "gut-wrenching" and tragic murder came the day before his youngest brother's 30th birthday and a week before her son's wedding.
"The worst part is not being able to say goodbye ... he was loved so, so much by so many people," she said in a victim impact statement read in court on Wednesday.
"It tears my heart to pieces."
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