A Warrawong woman accused of stabbing her partner awaits her fate after nearly a day of evidence.
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Emma Stinson, 30, appeared before Wollongong Local Court and pleaded not guilty to contravening an AVO and reckless wounding.
On 19 February, 2021 neighbours of Stinson at Griffin Street, Warrawong heard yelling and screaming coming from Stinson's townhouse.
Doris Grech, who lives three doors up from Stinson, said about 11.30am she had come home from work and heard a disturbance at Stinson's property.
Ms Grech said she could hear two voices yelling, a male and a female and this included a lot of swearing.
Ms Grech was cleaning her car out the front of her property and saw Stinson and a man she knew was Stinson's partner come outside, continuing to yell at each other.
Stinson and the man then started a physical fight that caused both of them to fall to the ground and start punching each other.
With Stinson on top of the man, Ms Grech said she saw Stinson punch her partner three times as he tried to get her off him.
Then Ms Grech told the court she heard the man yell "you stabbed me, you bitch" before he got up and Ms Grech could see blood coming from his leg.
Soon after, a vehicle pulled up at Stinson's address and a woman who Ms Grech said was the man's mother got out of the car and went into the house, after which she could hear the man and Stinson yelling at her.
At the time, Christine Sandell was also watching the events in Griffin Street unfold. Ms Sandell was sitting with Ms Grech and could hear screaming, yelling, banging and smashing coming from the house three doors down for about 30 minutes.
"I was sitting out the front and could hear yelling and screaming, Doris had a look and said they were fighting in the front yard," Ms Sandell said.
Ms Sandell said she saw Stinson on top of the man and kicking him, a few seconds later, Ms Sandell heard the man yell out.
"Look what you've done, you stabbed me," Ms Sandell recalled the man saying.
To see what was going on, Ms Sandell said she stood up and saw the man trying to get back into the house.
"I saw he was on his backside using his arms to go backward towards the house, his hands were behind him to go backwards, and his leg was crooked," she said.
The yelling and screaming also continued.
"He was yelling, 'Look what you've done, you've stabbed me you bitch. You're dead to me,' and then more yelling and screaming inside the house," she said.
Later, Ms Sandell said a silver SUV turned up in front of the house and a man and a woman got out of the car. The man who was injured screamed at the pair to "f--- off", Ms Sandell said.
The woman who got out of the car started picking things up from the front yard, Ms Sandell said, and put them in the bin.
Police arrived soon after that.
Defence lawyer Matthew Kwan put to Ms Sandell that she may have missed parts of the altercation.
"You certainly didn't see a stabbing," Mr Kwan said.
"No, I did not see her stabbing," Ms Sandell replied.
"Did you see a knife at any stage?" Mr Kwan said.
"No," Ms Sandell said.
The court also saw police body-worn camera footage.
In the video, the door to Stinson's unit can be seen to be unattached to the doorframe and falling inwards off its hinges.
Police see blood on the floor of the unit and ask Stinson whether it was from today, to which she relied "no".
"He's not injured, nothing's happened," Stinson can be heard saying.
When questioned about who "he" is, Stinson says her partner doesn't live with her and is at his mother's address.
Police go upstairs and find a man lying on the ground with an injury to his leg.
The man says glass smashed and that caused his injury.
Stinson tells police that the door fell down and he was under it, before denying stabbing the man.
"I didn't stab him, he's never bashed me, never touched me," Stinson said in the video.
Stinson then tells police that a glass bottle smashed after she threw it at the wall in the living room.
Senior Constable Tegan Aschenwald said there was glass scattered inside the unit.
In her closing statements, prosecutor Sergeant Leah Argent said Stinson's explanation of events was not believable.
"We can't accept a word of what she says," Sgt Argent said.
Sgt Argent also highlighted that medical evidence of the wounds to the man did not find any presence of glass in the cuts he sustained and that blood was found on a pair of scissors and a knife found on the property.
Mr Kwan said while it was clear that there was an argument and fight and an injury, no one who gave evidence saw a stabbing occur.
"When Your Honour turns to evidence of witnesses, no one actually sees the stab," Mr Kwan said.
Mr Kwan proposed that the man could have been cut by glass that was in the house.
"Is the story consistent, yes, is it plausible, yes."
Magistrate Darryl Pearce reserved his decision until September 9.
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