Man Sentenced for Fatally Stabbing Son Over Family Photograph

Published on March 19, 2024

John Steele and his son David were looking through photographs of their former partner and mother, Jennifer Cole, who had died from cancer a day earlier. Soon after, David Steele was dead on the floor from a single catastrophic stab wound to his neck. A Supreme Court justice described the case as “unusual and very tragic” on March 19 as she sentenced Mr. Steele to six years and nine months in jail after the 76-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The two men were living together on April 28, 2022, at a property in South West Rocks, on New South Wales’ (NSW) mid-north coast. A day before, Ms. Cole had died from cancer at Kempsey Hospital....