Cairns woman Isabella Aneta Cisarova, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, was covered in blood, court hears

A young woman stands in front of the cheerful yellow umbrellas at Crystalbrook Riley with her legs and arms apart, one arm covered to the elbow in blood and her bare legs liberally smeared in blood, in a shocking image shown to a Cairns Supreme Court jury.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane must prove that Isabella Aneta Cisarova, 22, intended to kill her mother when she slashed the woman’s throat in November 22. Ms Cisarova has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. Picture: Brendan Radke

A young woman stands in front of the cheerful yellow umbrellas at Crystalbrook Riley with her legs and arms apart, one arm covered to the elbow in blood and her bare legs liberally smeared in blood, in a shocking image shown to a Cairns Supreme Court jury.

Isabella Aneta Cisarova, 22, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and to grievous bodily harm with intent over the incident at 5.41pm on November 23, 2022, on the crowded Esplanade.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told a Cairns Supreme Court jury Ms Cisarova had inflicted a 15cm neck wound to her mother with a boxcutter, with the jury shown an image of the bloodied object. Picture: Supplied

She was 20 at the time and joined her parents and two younger siblings in Cairns a few months after they emigrated from Czechia.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane has told the court Ms Cisarova inflicted a life-threatening 15cm neck wound to her then 39-year-old mother.

The attack occurred in front of dozens and dozens of people, almost opposite Muddy’s Playground, where Ms Cisarova’s mother had just spent two hours with her younger children.

Cairns woman Keryn Leigh Turner was on her regular Esplanade walk.

“I saw a female go down onto the ground,” she said.

“Her legs were flailing everywhere.”

Ms Turner told the court the young woman said ‘she’s my mother’, stood up, put her hands out and dropped the knife.

“She herself was covered in blood,” she said.

The scene of an alleged stabbing on the Cairns Esplanade on November 23, 2022. Police later charged 20-year-old Isabella Aneta Cisarova with attempted murder. Ms Cisarova is pictured here being placed under arrest. Picture: Supplied

“I went into full teacher mode, I said to the victim ‘be still, be quiet, apply pressure to your neck, and I told the other woman ‘do not move’,” she said.

“I took two pictures in case she fled and I called the police on triple-0.”

Ms Turner said she did not see Ms Cisarova render any assistance.

Canberra tourist Nicola Keirven told the court she heard yelling and screaming.

“I saw a woman lying on the ground on her back, and her legs flailing, and I saw a young woman standing, repeatedly thrusting, stabbing,” Ms Keirven said.

“The young woman walked away and walked back again and I saw blood on her arm, up to her elbow.”

The jury was shown an image of the mother on the ground and Ms Cisarova, dressed in a black singlet, pink shorts and blue runners, holding her arms out.

Cyclist James Guigni said he heard “unusual, shrill, shrieking,” and saw two women with athletic builds in an intense altercation.

“I thought I might be able to intervene or help and moved closer, but it changed dramatically, one produced a weapon and attacked the other woman, she dropped quite quickly,” he told the court.

“She attacked her throat with whatever she had in that hand very quickly, there was heaps of blood, very significant trauma,” Mr Guigni said.

The attack occurred in front of dozens and dozens of people, almost opposite Muddy’s Playground. Picture: Brendan Radke.

“It was definitely repeated strikes, maybe as many as five or six, it was quite forceful, it wasn’t like you see in the movies, one swoop, it was repeated jabs.”

Mr Guigni agreed he said in his police statement he heard Ms Cisarova say to her mother “you f****** my family”.

Family tragedy has been laid bare, with the jury hearing the mother alleged a long history of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of the children’s father.

A few months before the attack, she fled the family’s one bedroom unit on Lake St and found herself with her two children at a women’s shelter in Mackay.

There was crossfire with the father making allegations against the mother, saying she drank too much, was short-tempered, broke things and had explosive physical outbursts, defence barrister Tim Grau told the court during his cross-examination of the mother.

The scene of an alleged stabbing on the Cairns Esplanade on November 24. Police later charged 20-year-old Isabella Aneta Cisarova with attempted murder. Bystanders are assisting her then-39-year-old mother with a neck wound. Picture: Supplied

She quietly but firmly denied the allegations, said she had been the victim of domestic violence and was living in a women’s shelter at the time of the attack, and agreed she was afraid the children and their father would return to Czechia after she learned the Lake St unit was on the market.

“It was all lies,” she said of the allegations.

She told Ms Cisarova in a letter “he was always one step ahead”.

The court heard that when police were called over a domestic violence matter to their home in Czechia in 2017 and the father was arrested, the mother’s relationship with Ms Cisarova, who subsequently moved in with her paternal grandmother, unravelled.

In the months before the attack, the father and daughter exchanged disparaging texts about her, joking about throwing her out of a window.

Assisted by an interpreter, the mother, wearing a sombre suit, gave evidence for about five hours from a separate room at the courthouse, dissolving into tears many times as she spoke.

Originally published as Cairns woman Isabella Aneta Cisarova, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, was covered in blood, court hears