Ex ‘came at me with knife’ says accused
A BUTCHER turned Gold Coast soldier accused of murdering his ex-wife and her partner in a bloody stabbing rampage, allegedly told police he wasn’t in fear for his own life during the fight.
Christopher Robert Carter, who was based at the Canungra Army barracks, was in the Supreme Court yesterday on the first day of his trial for murdering ex-wife Renee Carter and her partner Corey Croft at Upper Coomera on January 20, 2015.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutor Glenn Cash told the jury in his opening address that Carter stabbed his ex-wife with such force that he severed her spinal cord, and then turned the knife on her partner, slicing his jugular and carotid arteries. He said that Carter told police he put the alleged murder weapon ¬– a Victorinox butchers knife – in Renee’s hand after killing her.
Mr Cash said that Renee Carter’s five-year-old son was asleep at the time of the killings, and awoke the next day to find the alleged murder weapon laying next to his mother’s body which was slumped against a wall inside in the lounge room.
The young boy put the bloody knife in the kitchen sink, the jury heard.
Mr Cash said Ms Carter’s aunt found the bodies at about 5pm on January 21, with Croft found laying in a pool of blood inside the front door. Mr Cash said police alleged Carter admitted killing the pair, telling police he went to Renee’s house to talk about child custody disagreements.
“I went there to talk to her and she came at me with a knife she was telling me she was going to kill me,” Carter allegedly told angry.”
Carter’s defence barrister David Brustman QC told the jury in his opening address that Carter admitted killing the pair with a knife but did not have the required intent.
Mr Brustman told the jury that a key issue of the trial would be “how” the alleged murder weapon came “to be in the hand of my client”.
He told the jury that prosecutors “will say he took” the knife to Renee’s home. But Carter told police that Renee came at him with a knife.
One of the family members of the alleged murder victims found yesterday’s opening address so confronting that they left the court in tears.
The trial continues before Justice Martin Burns and is expected to run for two weeks. police. “I was