Prosecutor tells court Cameron Turgay Bardak had ‘unwavering intent’ to kill a woman
A prosecutor has told a court Cameron Turgay Bardak was ‘like the Terminator fixed on his mission of killing’ a woman when he attacked her in 2020.
Police & Courts
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Cameron Turgay Bardak was like the Terminator fixed on his mission of killing Maria Buci the day he attacked her in a Brisbane city carpark, a court has heard.
In his closing address in Bardak’s Brisbane Supreme Court attempted murder trial on Tuesday, Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook told the jury it could be satisfied on the evidence that Bardak had an “unwavering intent” to kill Maria Buci on July 1, 2020.
“You might think he was like the first Terminator only with eyes for Sarah Connor, he would stop at nothing to get her, to end her, it was his mission that day,” Mr Cook said.
“Others around the scene were nothing more than an inconvenience, he could feel David Sturgess punching him but that didn’t deter him.
“And like the terminator of course being disarmed didn’t stop him, he went in again, ripping her hair out, strangling her with his powerful hands.”
The trial has previously heard evidence that Bardak, 32, ambushed Ms Buci, now 30, as she left work, confronting her with a hatchet that he used to strike her before going on to strangle her after he was disarmed by Mr Sturgess and before others came to her defence.
“Was Mr Bardak then only prevented from completing his goal of killing Ms Buci by this group of … good Samaritans,” Mr Cook asked the jury to consider.
“You can be satisfied that the evidence you’ve heard last week has proved that once Maria Buci refused to get into her car with Mr Bardak, that he had that unwavering intention to kill her in that carpark.”
Bardak gave evidence that he never had any intention to kill or seriously injure Ms Buci and that he had gone to “badger her” into taking him back, saying he took the hatchet as a backup plan in case he had to “coerce her” into talking.
He repeatedly pointed to messages he had sent her in the hours before the attack in which he discussed going to dinner the following night and playing tennis that Friday, saying they were evidence of his “future planning” and his lack of intention to kill her.
In his closing address, Mr Cook showed the jury a still photograph taken from a video showing Bardak with his hands around Ms Buci’s throat strangling her, his teeth gritted, eyes shining and blood on his shirt.
“You can be satisfied that photograph shows a man with an intent, an intent to harm, an intent to kill, but not an intent to play tennis,” Mr Cook told them.
Defence barrister Matthew Hynes said the jury could not be satisfied Bardak held an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.
“Ladies and gentlemen – nasty, manipulative, aggressive, upset – those words all properly describe the tone and the rollercoaster of the text messages sent in the afternoon of 1 July 2020,” he said.
“The texts were, as you’ve seen, explicit, they were no holds barred and yet nowhere, nowhere in them was there any statement of planned harm, planned violence or an intent to kill.”
He said Bardak did not shy away from his poor treatment of Ms Buci.
“But always, always he returns to wanting another chance,” he said.
“Something she’d given in the past and she’d done that at times when he’d been nasty to her back then.
“Always, always whether he had an axe in his hand or not he’s talking about the future – their future. Dinner on Tuesday, tennis on Friday speaking to her at 5pm and seeing where things go tomorrow. His words from the texts, ladies and gentlemen.
“Another chance is exactly what he was asking for at 5.09pm, if he could talk to her she might come around.”
Mr Hyne said common sense did not support the crown’s assertion that the attack was a “premeditated vengeful murder attempt”.
“If this man, who Mr Cook has labelled in his opening address as a giant, put any actual intention to kill into execution, meaning trying to kill by doing an act with an axe, Ms Buci wouldn’t be here,” he said.
“Did Mr Bardak act terribly to Ms Buci in their relationship? Yes.
“But you’re not in this courtroom to judge him on morals or standards of morality, your focus is intent.”
Bardak has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and to an alternate charge of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.
The trial continues.
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