And the spark that triggered the brawl inside Peden's Hotel and subsequent stabbing outside some 12 minutes later was the most trivial event; a spilled drink on a pair of shoes.

Katrina Weeks, now 34, was on Friday jailed for a maximum of six years, with a non-parole period of three years and six months for the attack, which Judge Garry Neilson labelled "unprovoked, uncalled for and unjustified."

Weeks had smoked methamphetamine in the day before the stabbing, but when she was unable to obtain more of the drug she consumed MDMA, LSD, cannabis and 10 cocktails. When someone spilled a drink on her boyfriend's shoes, triggering a brawl inside the Cessnock pub, Weeks told a security guard "that bitch is going to cop it" and flashed a small flat-bladed knife. "I'm going to flog that bitch there in the red," Weeks told security as she was being kicked out of the pub.

Then, some 12 minutes later, when the woman walked from the hotel, Weeks immediately ran towards her, the knife in her right hand and stabbed her at least five times in the face, ear, neck, back and shoulder.

The victim fought back and had hold of Weeks until she heard someone say "[victim's name], you've been f---ing stabbed. Let go."

Weeks fled in a car and later told her family: "I've really f---ed up. I stabbed a girl 10 times last night. I don't know how bad I hurt her. I stabbed her in the face 10 times."

The victim, 26, penned an emotive victim impact statement outlining the profound effects the stabbing, and subsequent scarring to her face, has had on her.

"I am angry and unforgiving for what Katrina Weeks' attack did to me," the woman said in the victim impact statement, which was read in court by Crown prosecutor Jane Krippner. "But I feel sorry for her family who don't have her while she is in jail. "At the same time she could have taken me away from my children forever if the knife had sliced a little higher."

The victim said she was perpetually aware of the scarring to her face and people's reaction to it and described herself as "constantly worried, stressed, anxious and always looking over my shoulder".

Judge Neilson said the premeditation involved in the attack - the 12 minutes between Weeks leaving the hotel and returning before she waited for the victim and launched her attack - was particularly concerning.

Weeks, represented by barrister Rebecca Suters and solicitor Donna Smith, will be eligible for parole in November, 2022.