Jury finds Maddison Hickson not guilty of murdering father Michael Carroll

A jury has acquitted Maddison Hickson, who admitted stabbing her violent father Michael Carroll but claimed it was in self defence.

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Maddison Hickson has been found not guilty of murdering her father Michael Carroll, with a jury finding prosecutors had failed to prove the young woman was acting out of anger when she twice stabbed the career criminal and standover man.

Ms Hickson had raised self-defence during a two-week trial in NSW Supreme Court in Newcastle, telling the jury that she had no choice but to stab her methamphetamine-using father after wrestling a knife from him during a violent struggle.

The now 25-year-old had given emotional testimony that she had feared for her life after a paranoid and delusional Carroll had called her “a f**king slut” and a “f**king dog” before coming at her with a knife inside Taylah McDonald’s home at Tenambit on January 16, 2021.

Prosecutors tried to disprove the self-defence theory, claiming Ms Hickson was angry about how her father was behaving and was herself armed with a knife when the raised voices between the pair became physical in a lounge room.

Michael Carroll had a feared reputation as a violent criminal and standover man.

But the jury took more than eight hours of deliberations before returning with the not guilty verdict.

Ms McDonald, who was cleared of an accessory after the fact to murder charge last week after the judge directed the jury to find her not guilty, was also found not guilty of hindering the discovery of evidence.

Prosecutors had alleged Ms McDonald had grabbed the knife used to stab Carroll and placed it in a dishwasher to clean it before police could take it away for analysis.

But Ms McDonald continued to deny she did anything with a knife.

The trial centred around Ms Hickson’s state of mind during the argument inside Ms McDonald’s home at Tenambit.

Maddison Hickson was found not guilty of murdering her father, Michael Carroll. Picture: NBN News.

Voices were raised after one of Ms Hickson’s friends, Aaron Thorley, had rung to say he wanted to speak with her about her father.

Carroll was childhood mates with Thorley’s father but the relationship became strained when Thorley senior refused Carroll’s wish to move into his home.

Threats were made and Carroll had suggested people, including Aaron Thorley, were filming him. He also believed his phone was bugged and there was a “hit” or contract out on his life, all of which were untrue.

But the court heard the argument inside Ms McDonald’s house heightened when Aaron Thorley arrived, with Carroll calling the young man a “f**king f****t” and again accusing him of filming him.

Ms Hickson told her father to calm down before yelling at him to “shut the f**k up” and “get the f**k out” after he failed to heed her warnings.

The scene at Tenambit where Michael Carroll died. Picture: NBN News.

Carroll instead called his daughter a “f**king slut” and a “f**king dog” before Ms Hickson returned serve by telling her father he was the “dog” – a term for informant – because he was in protection in jail.

And that is when the argument turned physical – the court heard Carroll rose from his seat and told Ms Hickson that “I should bash your f**king head in”.

Ms Hickson would tell the jury from the witness box that that was the moment she first saw the knife, her father holding it in one hand as he approached her.

She told them she wrestled the knife off Carroll but couldn’t remember stabbing him.

Prosecutors would allege Ms Hickson maintained possession of the knife throughout the altercation.

No one else in the house saw the knife at all.

Taylah Renae McDonald was acquitted of all charges. Picture: NSW Police.

Within 14 seconds, the verbal argument had turned physical and would soon be deadly, with Ms Hickson running outside past Aaron Thorley and a second man, yelling for them to get her away from her father.

Carroll walked out a few moments later, clutching his chest. He made it several metres to a car parked on the front lawn before he collapsed on the ground and died.

Ms Hickson left the scene and showered and changed, with the court hearing she was told to wash the blood off her because her father had hepatitis, before returning to the scene and being arrested.

The death ended a torturous existence of Carroll, who was feared across sections of the Lower Hunter for his acts of extreme violence.

The jury heard some of his criminal history, including violently assaulting an ex-partner after she refused his demands for an abortion and using pliers on the scrotum of a man in another attack.