Dongara man accused of attempted murder sobs in witness box

A Dongara man accused of attempted murder sobbed in the witness box today as he recounted the moments after he repeatedly stabbed his partner of 34 years.

Kim Ashley Prunster told a Supreme Court jury in Geraldton it was like watching a movie when he realised he held a knife in his blood stained hand and had stabbed Amanda Gibbons in their bedroom in November 2017.

“I thought ‘what have I done?’ I dropped the knife. She was crying. I was crying,” he said.

“She asked me for some help. She asked me for a cigarette. I lit her up a cigarette and said ‘I’m so sorry, baby, I’d never hurt you’.

“She was talking alright. I thought I must have only got her a couple of times. I helped her sit up in bed. I had blood on my hands.”

Mr Prunster, 57, said he hugged Ms Gibbons, 52, tucked her into bed and told her he would get help.

“When I was holding her, I knew then I didn’t want to live anymore,” he said.

Mr Prunster said he then got into a car, drove off and called Ms Gibbons’ lover, Dongara businessman Glen Marsden.

“I can remember him answering ‘hello gorgeous’. I said ‘you’ve effed my life up’,” Mr Prunster said.

”I said ‘you’d better get an ambulance, because I’ve hurt her’.

“He started abusing me, telling me I was selfish.”

Earlier today, Mr Marsden gave evidence Mr Prunster had told him during the phone call: “It’s done; you need to get an ambulance and look after my young fella.”

But under cross examination Mr Prunster denied this.

Mr Prunster also broke down when he recounted a conversation with his partner the night before the incident, when she told him she was leaving him.

“She said ‘I know you want me to change my mind, but I’m not going to’. And then and there it was like the whole world fell on top of me,” he said.

“It was worse than any physical pain I’d ever felt.”

On Monday, Ms Gibbons told the court she woke to find Mr Prunster kneeling beside their bed with a “vacant” expression moments before the attack.

“He was just looking at me. . .his eyes were black and he just looked weird,” she said.

Dr Jaques Perry, a Geraldton-based general surgeon who operated on Ms Gibbons told the court she had “massive” internal bleeding and a collapsed lung.

“When I opened the stomach I removed around 1.2 litres of blood,” he said.

The trial, before Justice Stephen Hall, continues.