A woman whose husband allegedly tried to murder her told police, 'He had a crazed look in his eyes,' after he whispered in her ear that he would kill her, a jury has heard.
The man, who is aged in his 40s and has not been named to protect the alleged victim's identity, faced the second day of his ACT Supreme Court jury trial on Wednesday, June 17.
He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and property damage, as well as four alternative charges of choking, making a threat to kill, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The man is accused of stabbing his wife in the arm with a carving knife at their Gungahlin home just before 11pm on July 5, 2024, in an alleged attempt to murder her.
The court previously heard that the couple, who were together for 24 years and share two children, had been experiencing relationship difficulties before the alleged murder attempt.
On Wednesday, jurors were shown footage of the wife speaking to police from a hospital bed the day after the alleged attack, with her left arm heavily bandaged.
She said when her husband returned home after drinking at a bar with work colleagues, he initially appeared "quite happy, very drunk... almost playful".
However, she said an argument broke out between the pair in their room shortly after, during which she said she no longer trusted him with her feelings.
"That upset him, and he said, 'I love you,' and I said, 'I don't love you like that anymore,'" she said in her police interview.
As the argument escalated, the man allegedly held the back of her neck and whispered in her ear, "I'm going to kill you."
"The way he said it, I was scared," she said. "[I thought] 'Oh, shit, he meant that."
She said her husband had never assaulted or threatened to kill her before that night.
The husband is said to have then assaulted his wife by strangling her and punching her in the face.
At times, the alleged assault occurred in the presence of their daughter who called triple zero.
The woman said her husband eventually went to the kitchen, and she heard her daughter screaming he had a knife.
The man allegedly charged at his wife and stabbed her in the forearm, which she said she had raised to defend herself.
The alleged victim believed her husband wanted to keep stabbing her when he tried to pull the knife out of her arm, the jury heard.
"I was losing a fairly decent amount of blood,' she told police as she recalled the aftermath of the alleged attack.
Doorbell camera footage played to the jury on Wednesday showed the couple's daughter crying outside the house and saying "please come" to arriving officers.
The court previously heard the couple's 24-year marriage ended following the alleged attack.
In his opening address to jurors on Tuesday, defence barrister Jack Pappas said his client denied all charges, and suggested the prosecution had an "onerous" job to prove the man attempted to murder his wife that night.
He said evidence presented in the trial would show that there was "no way he did this deliberately with an intention to kill her".
The alleged victim is expected to be cross-examined by Mr Pappas on Thursday, as the trial before Justice Belinda Baker continues.
