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Victorian stabbing accused hands himself in

A man has been arrested over the stabbing death of his de facto partner on a Melbourne street.

The 38-year-old man handed himself into police at Sunshine Police Station on Thursday morning.

The Sunshine North man is now assisting homicide detectives with their inquiries, police said.

The man’s de facto partner died after being stabbed in front of lunchtime shoppers in Sunshine’s busy Hampshire Road shopping district on Wednesday afternoon.

Passers-by performed CPR on the 33-year-old mother of four but could not save her.

Police on Wednesday said the couple had been in court that morning over a dispute.

The woman was attacked only three minutes after leaving her lawyer’s office.

The Melton West woman had four children aged from nine to 15.

Police said the man had a history of family violence during their 18-year relationship.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey from the homicide squad said there was a current court-imposed intervention order between the couple, but he was unable to reveal details.

“It’s an atrocious crime,” Det Sen Sgt Bailey told reporters.

“We have some kind of dispute that occurred in court today and we were hoping the dispute would have been resolved by the court itself but this de facto’s taken it into his own hands to try to resolve that in his own way and it’s escalated.”

The woman left the Sunshine court on Wednesday, went to a women’s refuge and then visited her solicitor in Sunshine.

She was attacked only three minutes after leaving the lawyer’s office.

“There is an intervention order that is a court-issued intervention order (but) I can’t go into whether this case is related to that or not,” Det Sen Sgt Bailey said.

“There has been domestic violence issues between the two before.”

A witness, who did not want to be identified, said the woman was fighting with a man as they crossed an intersection before he stabbed her and then slashed her throat.

The Melton West woman had four children aged from nine to 15.

Police said the 38-year-old man was believed to be staying at his parents’ house in North Sunshine.

The man’s son, aged in his 20s, saw the attack and spoke to police.

Police found the suspected murder weapon – a fishing knife – several hundred metres away.

The man’s car was found on a road nearby.

Det Sen Sgt Bailey said police had CCTV footage of the man reversing into another car before driving off, but police were not sure if the footage covered the attack itself.

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