A woman who crashed into her partner's car then drove at him, smashing into their Yarralumla home, was sick of him cheating on her, a court has heard.
The mother of three, 27, said she did not remember the events that occurred about 6.30am on December 27 last year after a night of drinking.
She pleaded not guilty to using her car as an offensive weapon and damaging her partner's car and her public housing flat but admitted drink driving an unregistered, uninsured car while unlicensed.
The woman told the ACT Magistrates Court her partner was an alcoholic who became violent when drunk and that she had caught him having an affair with a neighbour shortly before the incident.
''I'd just had enough of him cheating,'' she said.
But she denied she was angry at the man, with whom she has a child.
''I'm used to him having affairs, really,'' she said.
''To be honest, I was more hurt than angry ... I just had a baby that was three months old.''
She said she had drunk ''a lot'' the night before and that she drove into Civic to continue drinking after her partner ''went crazy at everyone''.
Neighbours told the court of being woken by ''an almighty bang'' the following morning and witnessing the woman slam her Mitsubishi Lancer into her partner's car before reversing and then driving straight towards the man, who was standing with a woman on the porch.
The witnesses said the man leapt out of the way and the woman slipped back into the house to avoid the car, which rammed into the wall of the residence.
The court heard one of her children was in the house at the time.
One woman said she heard someone trying to start the car again, which prosecutor Katrina McKenzie said showed that the woman in the car ''wanted to finish off the job''.
The accused's partner said she had not driven at him, but the friend who was standing on the porch with him told how she had run inside to avoid being hurt.
The woman told the court she did not drive at the man but rather was trying to reverse away from him.
''I don't know how the car went forward,'' she said.
''I put my foot down and all of a sudden, bang, I've smashed into the house.
''I didn't even see the car hit the house. I was too busy looking behind me.
''I don't even know how to drive anyway. I don't know why I got in the car.''
But Ms McKenzie said the woman had managed to drive into Civic and back and ''knew what she was doing''.
The woman was taken to Woden police station and registered a blood-alcohol reading of 0.083.
Yesterday, she told the court she had not drunk alcohol since the incident and that she later found out she had been pregnant with her fourth child at the time.
Her lawyer, Kim Bolas, said her client was an incompetent driver who should never have been behind the wheel of a car and did not intend to cause any harm.
She said the woman had described seeing the event as if having an ''out-of-body experience''.
''Dissociation is a serious mental illness,'' she said.
Magistrate Maria Doogan said the woman's testimony was not credible and that to take mental illness into account, she would need medical evidence.
She found that the woman deliberately drove at her partner, and convicted her of all seven offences with which she was charged.
Ms Doogan said the offence warranted a prison term but suspended the woman's six-month sentence because the woman was heavily pregnant.
The woman was also fined $750, placed on a good behaviour bond and ordered to pay for the damage she caused to the house.
Source: The Canberra Times
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