A WOMAN accused of murdering her aggressive and violent father at Tenambit last year has said she had 'no other choice' but to stab him after he came towards her with a knife during a volatile argument.
Maddison Hickson, now 25, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Michael Carroll at a house at Ronald Street on January 16 last year and claims she was acting in self-defence.
Ms Hickson gave evidence in Newcastle Supreme Court on Wednesday, telling the jury she managed to wrestle the knife away from her father before stabbing him twice. She said she stabbed Mr Carroll to protect herself and did not think she had any other choice.
"I thought he was going to kill me," an emotional Ms Hickson said.
Ms Hickson said she had been attempting to calm her father down after he had abused another man at the house in Ronald Street when Mr Carroll turned his attention towards her.
"I went into the bedroom to get my phone and keys and when I walked out he said to me: "you're a f---ing slut and you're a f---ing dog," Ms Hickson said.
Ms Hickson said her father was yelling at her and being aggressive and she shouted back: "you're the one who was on protection", a reference, she said, to his time in jail. She said at that point her father got up out of his chair and said "I should bash your f---ing head in".
Ms Hickson claimed Mr Carroll began walking towards her and when he was a metre or so away she noticed the blade of a knife in his right hand.
"I was really scared," Ms Hickson said. "I grabbed the knife and we wrestled over it... and I got the knife off him. "Then I stabbed him."
When Public Defender Peter Krisenthal asked Ms Hickson why she stabbed her father, she replied: "To protect myself. I just wanted him to stop. "I didn't think there was any other choice."
Ms Hickson said she then dropped the knife and fled outside because she thought her dad was chasing her.
"I was running for my life," Ms Hickson said. "I just needed to get away."
The prosecution case is that Ms Hickson was acting out of "anger or frustration" and not self-defence when she stabbed her father twice, the blade piercing his heart.
And under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Brian Costello, Ms Hickson was asked how she managed to hold onto her keys and phone in her left hand while using her right hand to wrestle the knife away from her father.
He also questioned why Ms Hickson would drop the knife after stabbing her father if she was still scared of him and thought he was coming after her.
Ms Hickson repeatedly denied that she had armed herself with the knife before the struggle with her father and refuted suggestions she had made up that he had tried to stab her.
As well as hearing from Ms Hickson, the jury heard details of Mr Carroll's criminal history, which included jail terms for multiple domestic violence assaults and Mr Carroll assaulting another man and using pliers on his scrotum.
Ms Hickson's friend, Taylah Renae McDonald, has also been on trial accused of moving the knife used to stab Mr Carroll. But on Wednesday, at the conclusion of the prosecution case, Justice Ian Harrison directed the jury to find her not guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder.
The trial continues.
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