The ex-partner of Mackenzie Anderson has pleaded guilty to murdering her just one week before he was due to face trial.
Tyrone Thompson, 25, entered the guilty plea in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, the Daily Telegraph reported.
He was convicted of murder and the matter was adjourned until a sentence hearing in April.
Ms Anderson, a 21-year-old Newcastle mum, was fatally stabbed at her Mayfield unit on the night of March 25 2022.
Police found her on the unit’s verandah and despite efforts to revive her, she died at the scene.
Her two-year-old son was found nearby, unharmed but covered in her blood.
Police located Thompson at the scene with a hand wound and took him into custody.
He had been in an on-and-off relationship with Ms Anderson.
Friends of the couple said Ms Anderson and Thompson were in the early stages of rekindling their relationship after she separated from him months earlier.
On the night of the murder he had been socialising with her, before returning some hours later without her permission and in breach of an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO).
Ms Anderson had called the police to notify them that Thompson was breaching the AVO.
But by the time they arrived – only minutes later – she had been stabbed 20 times.
Thompson was due to stand trial for murder in the NSW Supreme Court in Newcastle next week.