Mum stabbed 48 times in food row

A MELBOURNE woman who stabbed her mother 48 times because she complained about under-cooked lamb chops should not receive an immediate jail sentence, a judge said today.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Justice Bernard Bongiorno said at today's pre-sentencing hearing that he believed Julie Smith, 49, should be released to enable her to receive the support and counselling she needed.

Smith today pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury to her mother, Barbara Smith, 71, on January 27 last year at their suburban Broadmeadows home.

Crown prosecutor Kieran Gilligan said Smith had prepared a dinner of lamb chops and salad for her mother on the day of the attack.

When her mother said the chops needed cooking longer, Smith smashed a tray over her head and stabbed her 48 times with a kitchen knife.

Smith later told police: "Everything I do is wrong, I just lost it."