A man charged with murder has told a Perth court that he did not know a woman was under the car he was trying to steal.
Micheal Spratt is on trial over the death of Marija Karovska in the northern Perth suburb of Mirrabooka in February last year.
Mr Spratt has admitted to trying to steal a car belonging to Ms Karovska's son.
He told the court he had earlier stolen a purse from a Cedar Court house, and when he opened it he found credit cards and car keys.
He went back to the residence to steal the car.
He told the court he got in and started the car (which had a manual transmission) when someone came out of the house shouting.
'I didn't know the car was going backwards'
Mr Spratt told the court he was rolling back when he felt something hit the vehicle.
"I had no knowledge of her getting run over," he said.
Mr Spratt said he put the car in first gear and "went a bit forward".
Then, he told the court, he was "getting choked and hit" by Ms Karovska's son Daniel, who got into the car through a rear door.
"I didn't know the car was going backwards," he said.
Mr Spratt told the court he could not recall what he was doing with his hands or his feet before he broke free, opened the door and got out of the car.
When asked about Ms Karovska, he said: "I didn't know that she was underneath the car."
Under questioning from the prosecution, Mr Spratt said the car initially rolled back while in neutral.
The prosecutor described the movement of the car as going back, hitting Ms Karovska, going forward and then back again, at which time the woman was run over.
But Mr Spratt told the court that when he was attacked, he "lost control of the car" and did not know it was in reverse.
He also told the court he "didn't notice the bump" when the vehicle went over Ms Karovska.
When asked if he remembered Ms Karovska's daughter Dijana Karovski leaning into the car and yelling, "You've run over my mum", Mr Spratt said he did not.
He disagreed with the proposition he was trying to move the car back to get out of the driveway.
