Heroin dealer Zoe Giannioudis, 31, fatally stabbed one of her customers, Simon Cartwright, 38, in the chest in broad daylight after an ongoing feud.

The two had a history of angry text messages and violence. On one occasion he had stabbed her in the arm and had made lewd comments of a sexual nature. She had sent him an angry text message: “You better watch your back,” she wrote.

Stressed, because it was a rainy day and there were few customers, the 45kg drug dealer with a $400-per-day heroin habit came across her customer while she was dealing in Victoria Street, Richmond.

The two had a brief interaction, and she produced a knife and stabbed him before fleeing the scene.

She told the court that she had not realised the severity of his wounds as Mr Cartwright had walked across the street carrying a washing basket in a normal fashion. It was only after he reached the other side that he began to stumble. Passersby helped him and he went to have a cardiac arrest en route to the hospital.

Ms Giannioudis was arrested the next day and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. 

Justice Lesley Taylor also read out Ms Giannioudis personal history. The daughter of two heroin addicts, her mother had taken drugs throughout her pregnancy. She described an “abominably traumatic childhood” of abuse and “profound childhood depravation.”

Judge Taylor sentenced Ms Giannioudis to eight years with a minimum non-parole period of five-and-a-half years.

After the sentencing, Mr Cartwright’s mother, Tracey, spoke to journalists outside the court and expressed her disappointment.

“I’m appalled. Five years I think is just really not enough when I’ve got a life sentence myself and I’ve lost my son,” she said.