Father-of-two who stabbed his sleeping wife 15 times in front of their horrified daughter is jailed for 18 years after he tried to blame his rage on sleeping pills

  • Brian Browning, 53, was found guilty of stabbing his wife, Cathy, to death
  • Father-of-two tried to blame his actions on taking too many sleeping pills 
  • He killed wife as she slept in their daughter's bed a week before Christmas 
  • Judge said he had not shown enough remorse and jailed him for 18 years

By Jenny Awford For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 23:05 EST, 8 October 2015 | Updated: 04:23 EST, 9 October 2015

Brian Browning, 53, has been jailed for 18 years after killing his wife, pictured (left) being escorted into a prison van at the Supreme Court in Melbourne

Brian Browning, 53, has been jailed for 18 years after killing his wife, pictured (left) being escorted into a prison van at the Supreme Court in Melbourne

A man who stabbed his wife to death as she slept before dropping the knife in front of their horrified daughter has been jailed for 18 years after trying to blame his actions on sleeping pills.

Brian Browning, 53, claimed he killed his wife of 20 years, Cathy, 47, after swallowing at least six tablets at their home in Skye, Melbourne, nine days after they decided to separate in 2013.

The father-of-two was found guilty of murder and jailed for at least 14 years today after Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry said Browning had not shown 'significant remorse'. 

Browning said he had been hallucinating throughout the night before getting out of bed, finding a kitchen knife and attacking his wife as she lay in her daughter's bed - just a week before Christmas.

The couple's teenage daughter, Amy, came running in the room after hearing her mother's screams and saw Browning drop the knife before he uttered 'bitch' and walked out of the room, the court heard. 

During the murder trial, defence lawyer George Georgiou said an excess of sleeping pills containing sedative doxylamine had caused a drug-induced psychosis.

He said Browning suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and claimed his mental health had deteriorated in the days before the attack because of the break-down of his marriage.  

Justice Lasry accepted that Browning regretted what he had done but he was not convinced the man was completely remorseful. 

'I'm not persuaded your remorse was of a significant level,' Justice Lasry told Browning today.

'You took the life of your wife in circumstances where no conduct of hers could have contributed. She was asleep in her bed.'

Psychiatrist Lester Walton, a key witness in the trial, told a previous hearing that Browning had possibly been suffering from the 'pressure-cooker effect' when he killed his wife.

But he said he had never come across a case of doxylamine-induced psychosis in his experience.

Clinical pharmacologist professor Christopher O'Callaghan told the jury it was unlikely that the dose of doxylamine taken by Browning during the night had caused involuntary or unintentional actions. 

Speaking outside court, Mrs Browning's mother Anne Spark said the sentence could never be enough.

'It's just we've never seen any remorse. At least he was found guilty of murder, I was thankful for that because I felt she got justice then,' she said. 

Browning, 53, claimed he killed his wife of 20 years, Cathy, 47, (pictured) after swallowing at least six tablets
Browning said he had been hallucinating throughout the night

Browning (right) claimed he killed his wife of 20 years, Cathy, (left) after swallowing at least six pills at their family home in Skye, Melbourne, nine days after they decided to separate in 2013

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