Gumleaf
February 8th, 2008, 06:56 AM
Friday Feb 8 18:53 AEDT
A Sydney woman says she awoke to see her ex-husband's "angry face" before her boyfriend was stabbed and his penis mutilated in a fatal bedroom attack.
Marija Corbett told a Sydney court that she thought she would die alongside her boyfriend, Barry Corbett, at the hands of her former spouse.
Gabor Ziha, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Corbett, 58, on August 1, 2006, in a flat at Parramatta in Sydney's west.
He has also denied maliciously wounding his estranged wife.
A Supreme Court jury of 11 men and one woman has been told police found a human penis on top of a magazine in the bedside drawer on the night of the killing.
An emotional Mrs Corbett on Friday told the court of waking up to see her ex-husband's "angry face" looming over her bed.
"We fell asleep, but the next thing that I recall is Barry saying, 'Don't, please don't!'," she said.
"I saw Gabor's very angry and very hateful face in the light ... (and) I thought, 'we are dead, both of us, we are dead'.
"I didn't see knife ... I was trying to push him away and saying, 'No, don't!' I was pleading, 'Gaby, don't!'
"Barry stopped moving and stopped pleading and that's when I realised Gabor must have had a weapon."
Mrs Corbett said she ran for help, and it wasn't until later she realised she was bleeding and had been stabbed.
She said she had expanded her evidence about her ex-spouse's domestic violence in response to suggestions that his murder charge could be downgraded to manslaughter.
Crown Prosecutor Phillip Calvert said a reduction of the charge would depend on whether Ziha was deemed to have an "abnormality of the mind" at the time of the attack.
Mrs Corbett said she had made an additional statement to police last month after being told the murder charge could be downgraded.
"I was told that if he would be found mentally impaired that he would get away with murder," she told Mitchell Paish, acting for Ziha.
"I wanted to prove that actually he was a very aggressive man all the time ... not only when I left him but ... since the late '60s."
Mr Paish said Mrs Corbett had "an agenda" when she made the statement, saying she wanted to see her former husband kept behind bars so she would maintain control over his assets.
"(You were) wanting to paint a picture that would not assist the accused on his defence," he said.
Mrs Corbett said she had not mentioned the extent of the violence previously because "I didn't think it was such a relevant thing at the time ... to tell police about the violence. I didn't think it was an issue anymore".
Ziha and Mrs Corbett's son Tibor, 22 - who has also changed his surname to Corbett - recalled conversations with his father about his mother's new boyfriend.
His father had asked him if he could find a gun and revealed he was staking out Mrs Corbett's apartment with binoculars and complained there was no punishment for a wife "stealer".
"If you steal a loaf of bread you go to jail, but if you steal someone's woman it's okay in this country," Mr Corbett recalled his father saying to him.
The trial is continuing before Justice Graham Barr.
©AAP 2008
A Sydney woman says she awoke to see her ex-husband's "angry face" before her boyfriend was stabbed and his penis mutilated in a fatal bedroom attack.
Marija Corbett told a Sydney court that she thought she would die alongside her boyfriend, Barry Corbett, at the hands of her former spouse.
Gabor Ziha, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Corbett, 58, on August 1, 2006, in a flat at Parramatta in Sydney's west.
He has also denied maliciously wounding his estranged wife.
A Supreme Court jury of 11 men and one woman has been told police found a human penis on top of a magazine in the bedside drawer on the night of the killing.
An emotional Mrs Corbett on Friday told the court of waking up to see her ex-husband's "angry face" looming over her bed.
"We fell asleep, but the next thing that I recall is Barry saying, 'Don't, please don't!'," she said.
"I saw Gabor's very angry and very hateful face in the light ... (and) I thought, 'we are dead, both of us, we are dead'.
"I didn't see knife ... I was trying to push him away and saying, 'No, don't!' I was pleading, 'Gaby, don't!'
"Barry stopped moving and stopped pleading and that's when I realised Gabor must have had a weapon."
Mrs Corbett said she ran for help, and it wasn't until later she realised she was bleeding and had been stabbed.
She said she had expanded her evidence about her ex-spouse's domestic violence in response to suggestions that his murder charge could be downgraded to manslaughter.
Crown Prosecutor Phillip Calvert said a reduction of the charge would depend on whether Ziha was deemed to have an "abnormality of the mind" at the time of the attack.
Mrs Corbett said she had made an additional statement to police last month after being told the murder charge could be downgraded.
"I was told that if he would be found mentally impaired that he would get away with murder," she told Mitchell Paish, acting for Ziha.
"I wanted to prove that actually he was a very aggressive man all the time ... not only when I left him but ... since the late '60s."
Mr Paish said Mrs Corbett had "an agenda" when she made the statement, saying she wanted to see her former husband kept behind bars so she would maintain control over his assets.
"(You were) wanting to paint a picture that would not assist the accused on his defence," he said.
Mrs Corbett said she had not mentioned the extent of the violence previously because "I didn't think it was such a relevant thing at the time ... to tell police about the violence. I didn't think it was an issue anymore".
Ziha and Mrs Corbett's son Tibor, 22 - who has also changed his surname to Corbett - recalled conversations with his father about his mother's new boyfriend.
His father had asked him if he could find a gun and revealed he was staking out Mrs Corbett's apartment with binoculars and complained there was no punishment for a wife "stealer".
"If you steal a loaf of bread you go to jail, but if you steal someone's woman it's okay in this country," Mr Corbett recalled his father saying to him.
The trial is continuing before Justice Graham Barr.
©AAP 2008