Lauren Vivian Brown: Ex-escort charged with murdering FIFO ‘sugar daddy’ James Sheehy claims domestic violence

A former prostitute charged with murdering her “sugar daddy” partner has taken the witness stand, describing their explosive relationship and his final moments after just 142 days together. Lauren Vivian Brown, 28, fatally stabbed fly-in, fly-out worker James George Sheehy after a heated argument in their Joondalup unit on September 28, 2023. Ms Brown claims she acted in self-defence after he brutally attacked her, leaving her seeing “stars” and momentarily fearing she was paralysed. She told the Supreme Court of WA that the assault included Mr Sheehy ramming her head into a pillar and kicking her in the stomach wearing capped work boots, knowing she was pregnant with their son. During the fight, she bit him “really hard” as he put his arm up around her face and she was unable to breath. Ms Brown said she pepper sprayed the 31-year-old rigger when he continued assaulting her — but it had little impact. He pushed her into the kitchen and smashed a bin over her head while shouting “I’ll f...ing kill you”, she claimed. So she picked up a knife from the draining board. “I held it out in front of me and I said ‘just leave me alone’,” Ms Brown said. “He smiled at me in this weird, evil kind of fake way. I took a couple of steps forward and he took a couple of steps backwards.” She said she then saw him reach down next to their bed where she last saw a large machete-type knife that he kept for protection and tried to flee the apartment but only got “half-a-step” out the door. Ms Brown said he grabbed her by the hair and she twisted around — making her locks fall over her eyes — so she couldn’t see what happened when she put her arm out, still holding the blade from the kitchen. “He let go of my hair and I ran straight out the door,” she said. While prosecutors say Ms Brown then hid the knife in a toilet at the rear of the complex, she said she “placed it” there because “no-one’s going to help me with a knife in my hand”. She went back upstairs and peeped in, seeing him on the ground and bleeding, so screamed out for neighbours to call an ambulance. Ms Brown admitted that when she then called her mother, she told her that she thought he’d stabbed himself. “I was hysterical,” she said. “I didn’t know at that point in time that I’d actually stabbed him.” Police found her sitting in the car park of the complex because she was not properly dressed and “feeling exposed”. She told officers that Mr Sheehy attacked her after she tried to stop him drinking, having descended into an argument following a day of bickering over texts while he was at work. He had done a degrading act after they had sex that morning, which made her feel “disgusting”, she claimed. Earlier, Ms Brown said they moved in together three weeks after meeting, but he soon became controlling and jealous. He initially paid her to have sex but didn’t want her to continue working in the escort business, so handed her $1000 a week to be a “sugar baby-type thing”, she said, describing it as an “allowance”. “Things were good . . . there were no real red flags.” A video of bruises to her arm that she claims were inflicted by Mr Sheehy was shown to the jury. It was a “hectic” relationship but she didn’t report him to police because still loved him, she said. Ms Brown testified she had suffered a string of violent relationships after quitting school and leaving home aged 14. With her first abuser, she complained to police “but nothing came of it” and another left her too scared to do so as he’d threatened her family. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT