The man accused of killing Woonona woman Valmai Jane Birch told police the couple's arguments did not turn physical, a court has heard.
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On Friday the Wollongong District Court jury watched the first two interviews police conducted with David William Bagster, the day after the body of his 34-year-old girlfriend, Ms Birch, was discovered inside a wheelie bin in the bathroom of her Woods Avenue unit.
Bagster, 55, is fighting a charge of manslaughter and disputes the Crown prosecutor's argument his relationship with Ms Birch was characterised by violence.
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In the first police interview on March 22, 2011 Detective Senior Constable Brendan Ritchie asked Bagster if there were any problems between the pair or issues of domestic violence.
"No, we always got on pretty well," Bagster replied, later adding in response to further questions, "We had a few arguments, that was about it".
He said he had "grabbed" Ms Birch but the fights did not turn physical and there was "nothing really bad".
In the interview Bagster said he had last been at Ms Birch's Woonona unit about two or three weeks prior, after she was released from hospital, and he had stayed four days.
In a second interview, conducted later that morning, Bagster said Ms Birch had pulled her garbage bins into the unit "when she's had a big clean-out" but said he had not done that.
He said neither he nor Ms Birch had taken the bins into the bathroom, as far as he knew.
Bagster also told police he would take the bins out for Ms Birch and said he had last done it four weeks prior.
During the first interview, Bagster said he did not know of Ms Birch having any enemies.
He said she had owed 'Khaled' but that was "months and months ago she was worried about him" and they had worked it out.
Bagster told police he had last had contact with Ms Birch two to two and a half weeks prior and he had left a note on her front door the day before his interview, telling her to contact him because he was worried.
He said he hadn't heard from her for a "long time".
Detective Senior Constable Ritchie also gave evidence that he was called to Wollongong Hospital to a "suspicious transaction" involving Ms Birch and two others, Tassier Khaled and Khaled Khaled in August 2010.
The court heard Detective Ritchie searched Tassier Khaled and discovered a milk bottle containing a liquid that Mr Khaled said was his methadone, as well as $900 in $50 notes in a bum bag.
Detective Ritchie said Mr Khaled told him he had gotten the money from the ATM, before his brother Khaled said something in a "foreign language".
The jury heard Mr Khaled then told Detective Ritchie that he had won the money on the pokies.
Police later returned the money to Ms Birch.
Earlier this week, the court heard from Darrell Simmons, who was working as a custody officer on March 22, 2011, when officers brought Bagster in to Wollongong police station to interview him in relation to Ms Birch's death.
The court heard Bagster told him he was "stunned" and cried.
A former neighbour of Ms Birch, Tammy Kirk, told the court she would sometimes hear yelling between Ms Birch and her boyfriend when she lived in a unit in Myuna Way, Mangerton.
In August 2010, Ms Kirk said, she heard yelling, screaming and things being thrown in her neighbour's unit
The court heard Ms Birch asked Ms Kirk, "Could you please ring the police, he's bashing me", and a male said, "Don't believe her, she's a liar and a dog".
The jury heard Ms Kirk saw Ms Birch "banged up" with her lips swollen and her face red.
In cross-examination by defence barrister Scott Fraser, Ms Kirk told the court she assumed the man involved in this incident was Ms Birch's boyfriend but she could not say for sure.
The trial continues.
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