Supporters of a pregnant woman who was allegedly murdered by her de facto partner cried in court as they listened to a distressing recording of the triple zero call a young relative made after he found her body.
Kirralee Paepaerei was a 37-year-old mother of four and was pregnant when she was allegedly stabbed 49 times in the neck and chest by her partner of two years, Joshua Homann, at their home in Mount Druitt on 21 September 2015.
Paepaerei and her unborn child died. Homann, 40, was charged with her murder and is now on trial in the NSW Supreme Court, where he has pleaded not guilty.
On the first day of his trial on Wednesday, a jury of nine men and three women heard a recording of the young relative, then a teenager, who found Paepaerei's body upstairs after returning to the home in Sydney's west with a friend around midnight.
"[She's] dead on the ground. There's blood everywhere," the distressed relative could be heard saying to the emergency operator, amid panicked cries and moans.
Several supporters of Paepaerei filled the hard wooden benches at the King Street court in Sydney's CBD. As the triple zero call was played, several wept and some briefly left the courtroom.
The relative told the court he and a friend had arrived home around midnight and started to watch TV before they heard a bang and some breaking glass, and then saw Homann's car rapidly reversing out the drive and taking off down the street.
The relative said he ran upstairs, shouting to Paepaerei and Homann that someone had stolen the car, before turning on the light and seeing Paepaerei's body by the door of the bedroom she shared with Homann.
“I thought it was a joke at first,” he said. “I was telling her to wake up and then, I don’t know, I looked at her neck and I knew straight away.”
Crown prosecutor Sean Hughes told the jury in his opening statement that Homann had arrived at Mount Druitt police station six minutes after he rapidly left the house in his car at 12:04am.
Hughes said that Homann entered the police station breathing heavily, with a small amount of blood on his head and wearing no shirt or shoes, and claimed an intruder had entered his house.
According to Hughes, Homann told police: "Someone came into my house and tried to kill me. I jumped out the window and came straight here" and also urged police to go to the house and help his partner, who he said was still at home.
Hughes noted that police had tested how long it ordinarily took to drive from the home to the police station and found it took about two minutes.
Hughes told the jury a low level of methamphetamine, or ice, was found in Homann's blood and that they would hear evidence that it was not enough to have intoxicated him.
The pair regularly used the drug throughout their relationship, but Paepaerei had stopped taking it in the lead-up to her death as she was pregnant, the jury heard.
Homann's barrister Peter Lange told the court he will not be suggesting that Homann did not cause the death of Paepaerei.
He told the jury to instead consider the question: "What was going on in the mind of Mr Homann that night, and what was operating on his mind?"
"This is not a case about domestic violence. This is not a case about drug use, ice consumption," Lange said.
"What this case is ultimately about is the power of mental illness."
Paepaerei had 28 incision or stab wounds on her neck, 21 stab wounds on her chest, and blunt force injuries to her face, including a broken nose, the jury heard.
The trial continues.