WOMAN WHO STABBED HER BOYFRIEND AND WAS JAILED FOR FOUR YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS IN EDINBURGH
A WOMAN who stabbed her boyfriend to death has been jailed at the High Court amid angry outbursts from the victim"s family.Darleen Zavaroni turned on her 27-year-old lover, Allan Osbourne, after a fight over how she would celebrate her 24th birthday.
Despite admitting the charge of culpable homicide, there has been a six-month delay in sentencing the mum-of-two as psychologists examined her case.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Turnbull finally told Zavaroni her sentence would be four years and eight months.
The judge"s decision was greeted with shouts of 'b***h' and 'rot in hell' from members of Mr Osbourne"s family in the public benches.
At an earlier stage, it was thought psychologist Dr Mairaid Tagg might give evidence backing Zavaroni"s claims of bullying by Mr Osbourne, 27.
But defence QC Edgar Prais said he was no longer relying on Dr Tagg"s report and added: 'Washing dirty linen in public could not be felt to be advantageous.' It was also, he said, a mark of respect for the dead man.
In January, Lord Turnbull was told how the fatal blow was struck during a furious domestic argument on August 10 last year in the flat Zavaroni shared with Mr Osbourne in Gleniffer View, Drumry.
The court had heard that Mr Osbourne was sitting on their bed in his dressing gown after a shower when Zavaroni - who had earlier downed a bottle of wine - plunged the knife she had been holding behind her back into his shoulder.
The combination of the 'moderate force' she used, and Mr Osbourne standing up, caused a freak injury - severing an artery normally well protected by bone.
As Mr Osbourne lay dying, Zavaroni dialled 999 - holding her phone in one hand and trying to stop the bleeding with the other, listening to an emergency operator"s instructions.
The court heard how her 18-month relationship with Mr Osbourne had been a volatile one - allegedly punctuated by violence - but which resulted in them having a child just weeks before the killing.
Jailing her, Lord Turnbull said: 'Against that background of volatility, I have to examine what occurred on the evening of August 10 last year.
In the aftermath of an alcohol fuelled argument, you armed yourself with an appalling weapon.
You did this after Mr Osbourne had left to go to the bedroom and you followed him there.
There was no need to do so at all.
Your decision, no doubt clouded by alcohol, anxiety and anger has led to the death of a man with so much of his life still ahead of him.' Lord Turnbull also told her he was prepared to accept she had been suffering from depression, which had become much worse since her boyfriend"s death, and that Mr Osbourne had been seeking help for 'anger management'.
The court had heard earlier how Zavaroni called family for help, crying 'there is blood everywhere'.
Later she told police: 'I didn"t know what he was going to do.
It was just a reaction.' When asked: 'Was it your intention to go into that room to cause him injury?' she replied: 'No, I love him and didn"t mean to hurt him.' Defence lawyer Edgar Prais said Zavaroni did not know where Mr Osbourne was buried.
Before she went to jail, she had hoped to be able to take their one-year-old son, Tyler, to the grave to say goodbye.
Zavaroni is cousin of the late singer Lena, who won fame in the 1970s through Opportunity Knocks on TV and went on to become a child star - singing with Frank Sinatra and scoring top ten successes which made her the UK"s youngest chart artist.
But from the age of 13, until her death in 1999 at the age of 35, she battled anorexia and depression.
