A woman accused of murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him in the chest allegedly claimed the 31-year-old rigger stabbed himself, a court has heard.
Lauren Vivian Brown, 28, has gone on trial in the Supreme Court of WA over allegations that she fatally stabbed James Sheahy in their apartment in Joondalup in September 2023.
Lauren Vivian Brown, pictured, is on trial over the alleged murder of her boyfriend.Credit: Nine News Perth
State prosecutor Michael Cvetkoski told the court witnesses would give evidence during the course of the trial that she was verbally and physically abusive towards Sheehy, whom she had only met five months before his death.
The couple had only weeks earlier moved into a unit in Joondalup when an argument allegedly ensued between the pair. Cvetkoski said Sheehy was on the phone to a friend moments before he was injured. The friend claims to have heard Brown in the background “shouting really loudly” during their conversation.
The friend allegedly claimed he could hear Brown calling Sheehy expletives.
Cvetkoski said Brown resented Sheehy because he worked long hours and claimed that she was insecure and jealous.
James Sheehy, 31, was allegedly stabbed to death by his partner in 2023.Credit: Facebook
The prosecutor also told the jury that Brown had been witnessed prior to the incident being physically and verbally abusive toward Sheehy on separate occasions, who was allegedly seen at one point with a black eye.
He also claimed the couple’s former housemates once saw him retreat to their bedroom to avoid an escalating argument, closing the door behind him, which allegedly caused Brown to react violently by kicking a hole through the door through which she crawled to reach her partner.
He told the jury that during that phone call minutes before he died, Brown could be heard becoming angry, “and that anger turned to rage” as she questioned Sheehy about who he was on the phone with.
Cvetkoski then said the phone call “ended abruptly” and that the argument continued. He told the jury that Brown then allegedly used OC spray to render Sheehy incapacitated before stabbing him fatally in the chest.
She then panicked and screamed for help before allegedly hiding the knife in the apartment’s toilet block, Cvetkoski alleged in court, before texting a cousin and claiming that Sheehy had stabbed himself.
Brown allegedly did not immediately call emergency services to assist Sheehy as he lay unconscious in their apartment, instead running outside and calling neighbours for help where she borrowed a phone to call the police on a non-urgent number but she miscalled and couldn’t get through.
She then allegedly walked back to the apartment alone before exiting again.
Cvetkoski said she was heard telling neighbours that “he was kicking me in the head and back” and that she was pregnant.
A neighbour then put her on the phone to the police and the phone call was recorded, with Brown allegedly sounding distressed and saying she had a “domestic” with her boyfriend.
“She said he was pulling her hair ‘and now he has a knife wound or something’,” Cvetkoski told the jury.
“She said he was unconscious and she just went up there.”
Brown was allegedly a short time later found sat in the apartment block’s car park sat on the ground between a wall and a car where she was arrested by police and taken into custody.
Brown’s lawyer Anthony Eyers told the jury Brown did not deny that she stabbed Sheehy but claims she did so in self-defence “while under attack in that small apartment”.
“Self-defence provides a full defence to the allegation of murder,” he said.
The trial continues.