Sword wielding real estate agent climbed into ute, growled at cops after attacking women: court sees

Real estate agent Karl Howard was captured on CCTV hiding in the back of a ute, growling at police and crying in his hospital bed after he attacked two women, including one with a sword, a court has seen.

CCTV captured the bizarre moments real estate agent Karl Howard hid from police in a ute tray, and growled incoherently once captured, minutes after he sliced a woman with a samurai sword and punched another in his luxury Sydney home.

Howard, a former high flyer at Ray White Balmain, had been bingeing Viagra, cocaine and alcohol before attacking the two women in the early hours of 8 February 2021, according to court documents.

NSW District Court prosecutors, this week, refused Howard‘s attempt to plead guilty to one count of assault causing actual bodily harm to one woman and assault being reckless to causing grievous bodily harm to the second woman.

While Howard’s legal team and prosecutors agree he attacked the women, prosecutors rejected Howard’s guilty pleas because they “did not satisfy the indictment” against him.

The only issue left for Judge Anthony Townsend to determine in the trial is what was in Howard‘s mind when he attacked one of the two women with the sword.

Howard, who is on bail, ran from the Downing Centre this week after prosecutors knocked back his pleas to lesser charges. Picture: Julian Andrews

Prosecutors have pushed on with the trial hoping to convince Judge Townsend that Howard had “intent to murder” or at least ”intent to cause grievous bodily harm” against the woman he struck with the sword.

The court, on Friday, watched a black and white CCTV video of Howard running down an alleyway near his home barefoot as a police car followed, searching for him just after 5am.

Howard is seen clambering into the tray of a Triton ute and hiding beneath the netting as the police car cruises past, flooding the alley with light, unable to find him.

The real estate agent climbs out of the netting and falls onto the road.

Prosecutors then played a video of Howard being arrested by officers in the alley, he was handcuffed and surrounded and growling loudly - not forming any words as he struggled.

An officer tells him to stop kicking as he is held down on the road and restrained.

A third video showed Howard, his face purple with injuries, laying in a hospital bed being interviewed by detectives after his arrest.

The former Ray White real estate agent admitted to attacking the two women but prosecutors are pushing ahead with a trial to attempt to prove his “intent” when he swung a sword at one victim.

Howard looks around the room, his arm held in metal brace, as the detective reads out his notes indicating he had asked Howard a series of questions and received mostly “no comment” in response.

But Howard began crying, in the hospital bed, as the detective read out one response from the real estate agent.

Howard was filmed by police growling during his arrest after CCTV captured him crawling into a ute tray to hide from a searching police car.

“I‘m in love with one of them... I just want to make sure they’re okay,” Howard had told police.

The injured man was badly distressed, moaning and cursing in the hospital bed.

“Oh god, f***,” he groaned before signing the detective‘s notebook to formally agree they were accurate.

Howard, on Thursday, ran from the NSW Downing Centre court and into oncoming traffic as media cameras snapped around him.

The trial continues.