Manslaughter conviction overturned as stabbing re-trial ordered

The scene of Jason Adams' death in Raymond Terrace in February, 2020. Inset, Mr Adams and Lily Ridgeway.

LILY Ridgeway has had her manslaughter conviction overturned and been released on bail ahead of what will be a third trial over the stabbing death of Jason Adams at Raymond Terrace in 2020.

Ridgeway, 25, was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, a jury rejecting her self-defence claim, after two trials in NSW Supreme Court in 2021 and 2022.

She was later jailed for a maximum of seven years and seven months, with a non-parole period of five years, which would have made her eligible for parole in November next year.

But after serving more than three years behind bars, and more than two years after she was convicted of killing Mr Adams, Ridgeway appealed against her conviction and the severity of her jail term in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

And on Friday, after a hearing in the CCA, the three-judge panel upheld the appeal, quashing the conviction and ordering a re-trial.

Ridgeway was later granted strict conditional bail and ordered to appear in NSW Supreme Court in June, when she will again be arraigned and likely get a new trial date.

It will be the third time Ridgeway has gone on trial for Mr Adams' death.

Her other bail conditions include that she reside at a Maitland area address, not enter Raymond Terrace, report to police, not contact prosecution witnesses or Mr Adams' family and not consume alcohol or drugs.

Mr Adams was unarmed, alone and posed "no threat" to Ridgeway when he arrived at a house in Payton Street, Raymond Terrace in the early hours of February 29, 2020, a judge found in 2022.

But a traumatised background of domestic violence, a childhood of dysfunction and disadvantage, drug use and the fact she hadn't slept in 10 days meant Ridgeway was in an emotionally dysregulated state and conditioned to see danger and violence all around her.

So when Mr Adams made a slight move towards her or grabbed her by the jacket, Ridgeway reacted to a threat that was not real and responded by stabbing him once in the chest, the blade penetrating his heart.

He stumbled down the road, collapsed in the middle of an intersection and died.

"While this was an entirely needless killing," Justice Helen Wilson said. "Ms Ridgeway's act was the culmination of long years of trauma, violence and abuse. Even though, on the objective and reliable evidence, Mr Adams posed no real threat to her, Ms Ridgeway was primed to see danger all around her, her perceptions distorted by the drug use in the previous days and her response was an instinctive one."

Ridgeway was acquitted of murdering Mr Adams after a trial in 2021, but after deliberating for more than 45 hours the jury was deadlocked on the alternative charge of manslaughter.

A re-trial held in early 2022 ended when the jury found Ridgeway guilty of manslaughter, finding either that she was not acting in self-defence or that her response was not reasonable under the circumstances.

But she will go on trial for manslaughter again, likely in 2025, after the CCA overturned her conviction on Friday.