Robert Marshall sentenced for manslaughter in Bungonia stabbing

Robert Mathew Marshall, 43, has been sentenced by the NSW Supreme Court to a minimum of three years and three months in prison for the manslaughter of 38-year-old Adam Cordingley.

The incident occurred on 23 March 2024 at a rural property on Oallen Ford Road in Bungonia. The court heard that Mr Cordingley confronted Marshall regarding a 12-month extramarital affair Marshall had with Mr Cordingley’s wife. During the confrontation, a physical scuffle ensued. Marshall, who had been working as a chef at the Terminus Hotel in Marulan, used a hunting knife to stab Mr Cordingley three times.

While Marshall was originally charged with murder, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter. Justice Paul McGuire noted that while Mr Cordingley was the ‘initial aggressor’ due to his fixation on the affair, Marshall’s response was an act of ‘excessive self-defence.’ The judge described the stabbings as deliberate acts resulting from Marshall’s escalation from annoyance to aggression.