Attempted murder trial told of ‘scary man’ hitting car

A WITNESS has recalled seeing a “quite scary looking” man hitting at a car and another witness claimed she saw a man grab and strike his then girlfriend as the trial of an alleged attempted murderer continues.

The witnesses gave evidence before a jury at a Supreme

Court of Tasmania trial this week of a man who allegedly set his ex-girlfriend on fire in Chigwell.

The man’s defence lawyer Greg Richardson claims the woman’s burns were the result of a “highly emotional disturbed young woman who was making suicide threats that went wrong”.

Several witnesses took to the stand this week and audio phone call recordings, Facebook messages and CCTV footage of interactions between the man and woman from when they were in a relationship were played for the jury.

One witness recalled driving past the couple’s car after it pulled over “suddenly and erratically”.

She claimed she saw the man “holding her by the hair or the neck” as he struck her with his fist.

Another two women told the court they drove past the man hitting at the driver’s door of a car, with one woman describing him as “quite scary looking” and “very aggressive”.

But during cross-examination, Mr Richardson questioned why certain recollections of the encounters weren’t relayed in police statements at the time, such as the woman warning one witness her partner was “crazy”, or that she had smudged mascara.

Audio recordings were played to the court of the man yelling “you f---ing mutt” and “f---ing mole” at his then girlfriend.

Messages between the two indicated the woman had attempted to break off the relationship at least once, with one message reading “you’ve done it this time, there’s no turning back”.

The trial began on Tuesday and is expected to run for five weeks.