A woman who stabbed her friend inside a Melbourne rooming house because he didn't like her music taste has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Bianca Bonney was staying with her friend at the Dragon Village rooming house in Ascot Vale in February 2020 because she was homeless.
Her friend organised and paid for her room, and she invited him to drink some beer with her in the courtyard.
Bonney, 34, then asked him to go into her room, where she attacked him with a kitchen knife that she had hidden in her pants.
She screamed at the victim "I am going to kill you ... you're now going to die, you rat" before igniting a perfume bottle.
She sprayed him with burning perfume and he held his hand out to fend off the flames when she stabbed him in the hand with a syringe.
Bonney dropped the syringe and stabbed the victim with the knife four times, including a slash to his face that severed an artery.
He managed to escape and ran to find a stranger for help, with Bonney following him still wielding the knife.
When police arrived a short time later she told them "he didn't like my music ... I should have done worse".
The victim told police "I don't know how I am going to recover from this".
He needed a blood transfusion after the stab wounds and surgery for the face injuries, which have caused ongoing facial palsy.
Bonney pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to intentionally causing serious injury.
Her childhood was tarnished with abuse, deprivation and financial hardship, the court heard on Wednesday.
She went into state care aged two, was in an abusive relationship at 16, and has a long history of drug and alcohol addiction.
She has schizophrenia, borderline and antisocial personality disorders, and was suffering delusions during the stabbing.
Justice Christopher Beale found the attack will have long-lasting psychological effects on the victim, even if he makes a full physical recovery.
He said prison will be harder on Bonney than for prisoners who were not impacted by mental impairment.
However, Justice Beale found her impaired mental functioning "elevated the need to protect the community from her".
He sentenced Bonney to seven years in prison, with a non-parole period of five years, including 642 days already served.
