Newcastle District Court judge Siobhan Herbert accepted the woman's longstanding mental health issues were the primary cause of the stabbing attacks.

She said the woman was struggling to come to terms with her actions and could not forgive herself for hurting the girl, but had to be jailed because of the seriousness of the offences.

The woman was sentenced to a maximum of three years and nine months in jail, with a non-parole period of one year and 11 months.

Judge Herbert said a psychiatric report concluded the woman had "completely lost touch with reality" and lacked the capacity to control herself when committing the stabbing attacks.

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to reckless wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assaulting police.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in tears when CCTV footage of the rampage was shown in court earlier on Friday.

It was the first time the woman, who appeared via audiovisual link from prison, had watched the 15-minute edited footage.

It shows her wielding a knife and chasing the girl down supermarket aisles in the beachside town of Salamander Bay on August 27 last year.

Defence barrister Peter Krisenthal said the woman had psychotic delusions and paranoia when she stabbed the girl and three men.

The woman feared she was going to be killed and the CCTV footage gave a clear insight into the chaos in her mind, Mr Krisenthal told the court.

She had been getting her life back on track before her friend, Steve Fenwick, disappeared near Newcastle in January 2019 and was believed to have been murdered, the lawyer noted.

Her mental health issues deteriorated and she became convinced police were following her, the television was talking to her and car number plates contained secret messages.

She had also been digging in sandhills looking for Mr Fenwick before the stabbing.

"She is a loving and caring mother," Mr Krisenthal said.

"She is ashamed of her actions."

The woman stabbed her first victim, Andrew Nichol, after jumping in his car. She told Mr Nichol: "I've got a knife and I'm evil."

One witness, Rohan Andrews, who saw the woman was carrying two knives, picked up a chair for protection before she asked him: "Are you Jesus?"

Another victim, Derrick Vogtmann, was stabbed twice in the back as he ran inside the supermarket. He ran down the aisle yelling "look out, she has a knife and she's crazy".

Peter Ferraro was shopping when he looked up to see the woman standing two metres from him with blood on her face.

She charged at him with the knife above her head, so he turned and ran before being stabbed in the back, suffering a small cut.

The CCTV footage showed the woman chasing the girl through the IGA store for several minutes while holding a knife and at one stage dragging her along the ground by the hair.

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