Woman at centre of Littlehampton love triangle tells of discovering bloodied crime scene
A woman has told a court of finding two men seriously wounded and bleeding in her garage – it is alleged that one retaliated with a hatchet after being shot by the other.
A woman at the centre of a love triangle which sparked a shooting and axe attack — leaving one man a tetraplegic — has described how she saw “blood everywhere” when she entered the crime scene.
The woman’s 32-year-old ex-partner is on trial in the Supreme Court charged with one count of attempted murder after allegedly shooting her new lover in her garage at Littlehampton, in the Adelaide Hills, in October 2017.
The court has heard the victim, 26, then retaliated, attacking the accused man to the back of the head and neck with a hatchet, rendering him a wheelchair-bound tetraplegic.
The woman told the court she was sitting inside the home when she heard the gunshot and went to investigate.
“I entered the garage, I saw (the victim) lying on the floor, rolling around in pain,” she said.
“There was blood everywhere.
“He was holding himself. He was asking for help … I started swearing.”
She said she then noticed the accused “slumped over on the ground”.
“He wasn’t moving or making a sound … he had blood. I could see blood on him, on his back and neck … so I knew he was injured too.”
She said she tried to help both men, but they were too far apart to help at the same time.
She said she saw “a huge hole” in the back of the victim with “blood pouring out” and tried to stem the bleeding.
The jury of six men and six women also heard a panicked triple-zero call made by the woman, in which she told an operator someone had been shot and both people were bleeding.
The court has previously heard the accused lured the victim to the garage to show him his gun collection.
The woman, 39, told the court her ex-partner was “not happy” about the breakup of their relationship about four months earlier.
None of the three people involved can be identified for legal reasons. They had all been living together until a few months earlier when the accused man moved out.
The woman then changed the locks on the home and moved the accused’s belongings into the garage.
The court has heard the woman entered into a sexual relationship with the victim — who she met through work — after the accused moved out, but it ended after the attack.
Under cross examination she told the court she was no longer in love with the accused, but was also not in love with the victim at the time of the incident.
She said she had not had any romantic feelings for the victim and was unaware of any romantic feelings he felt until after the accused moved out.
“There may have been a hint I suppose, that he might have found me attractive … but that’s all,” she said.
The victim has also previously given evidence, telling the court how he fought back against his attacker, reaching for the hatchet and swinging it at the attacker.
The trial, before Justice Anne Bampton, continues.