WARNING: Distressing content

Chilling police footage captures a man describing how he “lashed out” when he stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the neck in a Sydney carpark, with a jury finding he had intended to murder her during the attack.

It took the jury just 3½ hours to find Anthony Monteleone guilty of stabbing his former girlfriend with intent to murder in May 2024.

Monteleone had waited in a carpark in Sydney’s inner west for 40 minutes for his ex-girlfriend to come out of the gym before he stabbed her in the neck, with images released by the District Court of NSW revealing the blade snapped at some point during the attack.

The woman told the NSW District Court she could have died during the attack, choosing to read out a victim impact statement in court to be a voice “for those who no longer have one”.

“I survived but I was very close to not being here ,” the woman told the court.

“What took seconds became a fight for my life. I am here today because people stepped in and because I refused to give up.”

She said the “warning signs” should have been enough, telling the court “action must come before violence, not after”.

“Not every woman survives. Today is not just about what was done to me, it’s about recognising the seriousness of this kind of behaviour and ensuring it is not minimised. “Because when violence like this is reduced, excused, or overlooked, it creates a space for it to happen again,” she said.

“I stand here not only for myself but for … those who never got the chance to stand here at all.”

Monteleone handed himself in to police the morning after he stabbed the woman, telling officers he had “just lashed out” but “never intended to do what I did”.

“I had the knife in my hand and I just lashed out at her,” Monteleone told police in a recorded interview released by the court.

“(I) injured her around the neck … was all too fast, I don’t even know where else.”

Monteleone was unable to recall how many times he stabbed her.

“I got some around the neck, I didn’t know, it went so fast,” he said.

Monteleone, his hand wrapped in a paper bag as he sat in the police station, told officers he had driven around Sydney following the attack before dumping his car at a park, torching it, and walking home where he threw his clothes in the laundry and had a shower.

The next morning he visited his parents and apologised to them before he turned himself in.

“I really wanted to have a shower … and just thaw myself out … I thought, you know, what you need (is) a good night’s sleep,” he said.

“I really wanted to speak to my folks and apologise for everything that had happened.”

The woman had taken out an apprehended violence order against Monteleone in the weeks before he stabbed her, but he continued to call and text her repeatedly, with the woman at one point calling triple-0 as she thought his car was following her as she was on her way to a police station to report his behaviour, court documents state.

Monteleone was found guilty of one cause wounding/grievous bodily harm with intent to murder (domestic violence) earlier this year following a jury trial.

He is expected to be sentenced on Friday afternoon.

More to come

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