A man whose wife is on trial accused of deliberately poisoning him has been painted in court as controlling and demanding as he admitted he had not worked for nearly 40 years.
Bozena Knapinski is accused of endangering her now ex-husband, Robert Knapinski, by secretly pouring toxic doses of selenium into his water bottles when he was not looking.
Bozena Knapinski is accused of poisoning her husband.Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt
Mrs Knapinski, 63, denies criminal responsibility, claiming she added the selenium to make her husband healthy and happy.
Taking the stand on the second day of the trial, Mr Knapinski, 64, was accused of being out of work since suffering a back injury in 1988 but, when pressed by his wife’s lawyer Michael Tudori, could not explain details of the injury or how it impacted his ability to work.
Mr Knapinski told the court he had received a meagre disability pension since the incident.
Tudori put it to Mr Knapinski that his wife of 40 years worked two jobs while also taking on the lion’s share of the housework and raising of their son, which he denied.
Mr Knapinski was also accused of being controlling, not allowing his wife to have a PIN code on her phone, dictating the cleaning products and food she could bring into the home, and refusing to let her buy herself clothes or travel alone.
The court was told Mrs Knapinski had studied medicine before switching to economics in her homeland of Poland, before falling pregnant and giving up her studies.
In Australia, she worked as a cleaner and a waitress in a bid to make ends meet while her husband “complained daily about some medical pain or suffering”.
“He was a hypochondriac,” Tudori told the jury in his opening statement on Monday.
Mr Knapinski told the jury on Tuesday that, after he began to suspect his wife was poisoning him, he would swap his meal with their son in front of his wife “to see what her reaction would be”.
He also told the court both he and Mrs Knapinski were abusive to each other during constant heated arguments.
The jury had previously seen secretly recorded videos of Mrs Knapinski putting large quantities of selenium into her husband’s water bottles that had been left lying around the house.
Mr Knapinski took the videos, along with a blood test that allegedly showed toxic levels of selenium in his system, to police who then arrested his wife.
Prosecutor Brett Tooker told the jury selenium, which could be used as a health supplement in small doses, caused Mr Knapinski health issues including abdominal problems and skin conditions.
The trial continues.
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