A burglar who was part of a home invasion that led to the death of a Suffolk mother-of-two in Australia has been given 18 months' detention.

Emma Lovell, who was 41, died from a knife wound in North Lakes in Queensland on Boxing Day in 2022 while fending off two intruders.

One of the intruders has been jailed for murder but the other, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared of murder but convicted of burglary and assault occasioning bodily harm in company at the Supreme Court of Queensland.

The teenager, now 19, has been sentenced but was released from detention immediately having been on remand for nearly two years, according to reports from ABC in Australia.

The other intruder admitted murder and was jailed for 14 years.

Mrs Lovell was originally from Hasketon, outside Woodbridge, and lived with her husband, Lee, in Ipswich before they emigrated along with their two daughters to Australia in 2011.

She was killed after suffering a single stab wound to the heart.

Mr Lovell was injured during a “physical struggle directly outside the front door” which then moved to the front lawn, where his wife was fatally stabbed.

Although the defendant who was most recently sentenced was found guilty of burglary, he was cleared of the circumstance of aggravation of being armed with an offensive weapon.

The prosecution argued that the accused “had knowledge at the time of the commission of all of the offences that his co-offender was in possession of a knife”, according to a court judgement.

Mr Lovell said following the trial: “I'm still in shock by the result. I thought maybe it might go to a manslaughter charge, but not as low as a burglary charge.

“I just feel that justice hasn't prevailed, it's almost like an open invitation for a youth to murder someone because they're not really going to get any meaningful sentence."