A woman has been cleared of bashing her pregnant love rival after successfully arguing she was mentally impaired when she "snapped" and burst into the victim's Kambah home to attack.
Julianne Francis Williams, aged in her late 30s, went on trial in the ACT Supreme Court in June 2021 after pleading not guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
She initially argued she was not the person responsible for punching the victim, who was carrying the unborn child of Williams's former partner, seven or eight times in September 2020.
The court heard the victim had desperately shielded her stomach as she was set upon by Williams, who unleashed a barrage of blows as another woman, who was never charged, urged the expectant mother to "lift your arms up and it'll all be over".
Williams's case took numerous twists, the first of which came when she was admitted to hospital and her trial was delayed for months.
Then, in September last year, she abandoned claims she was not involved in the incident and instead began to pursue a mental impairment defence.
When her matter resumed this week, Justice Michael Elkaim said her case that she was not criminally responsible hinged on the report of a clinical psychiatrist who had been treating her for decades.
The doctor said Williams had been suffering from a borderline personality disorder and opioid dependence, adding that she did not believe the accused had been "fully aware of the nature and quality of her conduct", or in control of her actions, at the time of the bashing.
Asked to tell the doctor what she recalled of the incident, Williams said: "Only pieces ... it just happened ... I snapped ... I heard screams ... feels like I'm not there, standing outside, looking ... feeling empty."
After the doctor gave evidence, prosecutors told the court they would not oppose verdicts of not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
Justice Elkaim entered those verdicts and directed Williams to submit to the jurisdiction of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which has the power to make orders about mental health treatment.
He said there was "overwhelming evidence" returning Williams to jail, where she has been on several occasions in the past, would be "a massively retrograde step".
The same judge previously acquitted a co-accused of Williams, Anthony Daniel McIver, who was alleged to have been knowingly concerned in the September 2020 incident.
