There is no such thing as determining the outcome of a case before it has actually been through the entire legal process. There is a huge distinction between someone being provoked to wrath and acting in self-defence.

Still, based on the police reports about the death of 43-year-old Rohan Tulloch of York, Westmoreland, on Wednesday, it is very likely that the woman accused of killing him will enjoy the full sympathy of a vast number of persons.

It was reported that Tulloch was stabbed with an ice pick and killed by one of his children's mothers after he repeatedly abused her and attacked her more than once on the day of the fatal incident.

What is key to the final confrontation is the report that Tulloch took the baby from the woman at the Bethel Town Health Centre and things escalated to a deadly climax from there.

We suspect that it was the involvement of the baby, which raised the level of antagonism significantly. We are also aware that quarrelling partners or ex-partners often use their common offspring as a means of control, threatening to deny access or even manipulating the young one's emotions intentionally.

It is obviously wrong, which we are sure the offending persons already know. Those who would use their children in this manner should be aware that the level of hurt they are trying to inflict could have an opposite effect to the one they are trying to bring about.

They could be the one who end up being really hurt.