"Oh babe, you should have felt that, it felt so good".
That was the crucial comment, attributed to then accused murderer Lily Ridgeway moments after she had allegedly stabbed Jason Adams once in the chest, that the prosecution said not only eliminated any possibility the stabbing was accidental or that Ms Ridgeway was acting in self-defence but showed she appeared to derive some pleasure from it.
And when Ms Ridgeway applied for bail last year it was that quote - those "very disturbing words suggesting taking some enjoyment in the process of killing a fellow human being" - that so troubled a judge and was a factor in her remaining in jail.
The only problem for the prosecution was that when the evidence started in Ms Ridgeway's murder trial last month, that quote, those words did not form part of it.
During his opening address, Crown prosecutor Brian Costello told the jury he expected the key witness, Ms Ridgeway's friend Nikita Hanson, to say she heard Ms Ridgeway utter those words immediately after Mr Adams was stabbed.
"If you accept that immediately after the stabbing Ms Ridgeway said that then it is fairly plain that the accused was not acting in self-defence," Mr Costello said.
However, during her evidence Ms Hanson said she didn't hear Ms Ridgeway say anything when she came back inside, but heard the tap turn on and dry-retching.
Ms Hanson said during the fatal confrontation outside her house she saw Ms Ridgeway with a knife in her hand, while Mr Adams was being aggressive calling her a "black dog". "Lily had the knife and he stepped in towards her and the knife has gone into him," she said.
Seconds earlier Ms Hanson said she heard Mr Adams saying "go on c---, stab me".
During her closing address, Public Defender Madeleine Avenell, SC, labelled the crucial comment and its attribution to Ms Ridgeway "low quality, thoroughly unreliable evidence".
She told the jury the combination of evidence from Ms Hanson, who said she saw Mr Adams step forward "closer and closer" to Ms Ridgeway until the knife "entered his body", and the expert opinion of a forensic pathologist meant "at a minimum" the jury could not exclude "the reasonable possibility that Mr Adams walked himself onto the knife".
Ms Avenell also said the jury would not be satisfied the prosecution had excluded the possibility that Ms Ridgeway was acting in self-defence or that she had not intended to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Any barrister would tell you that this would be considered a walk-up acquittal; the jury had multiple avenues to find Ms Ridgeway not guilty. But, after listening to a week of evidence, the jury deliberated for more than 45 hours - clearly completely deadlocked at times - before returning to court on Friday and finding Ms Ridgeway not guilty of murder.
The jury could not reach a unanimous or majority verdict on the alternative charge of manslaughter and were discharged. Ms Ridgeway was granted conditional bail and will likely face a re-trial on the manslaughter charge.
