A man has been found guilty of attempting to murder his wife of 24 years during a drunken attack at the couple's home.
The man, who is aged in his 40s and has not been named to protect the victim's identity, stared straight ahead as the ACT Supreme Court jury handed down the verdict on Monday, June 29, 2026.
In the public gallery, the man's now-former-wife and her supporters gasped as the jury announced guilty verdicts for both attempted murder and property damage.
The man had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, as well as four alternative counts including choking, making a threat to kill, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Over the course of the nearly two-week trial, the prosecution argued the man had threatened to kill his wife before choking, punching and stabbing her at their Gungahlin home on July 5, 2024.
The jury heard the assault occurred at times in front of their daughter, who called triple zero.
In his closing address to the jury, prosecutor Sam McLaughlin said the "heavily intoxicated" husband had reached a "breaking point" during an argument about the couple's relationship.
Mr McLaughlin said the man eventually grabbed a chef's knife from the kitchen and stabbed his wife in the forearm, which she had raised moments before.
"The knife penetrated through her arm, through her jumper, and left a small cut [on her] chest," he told the jury.
The court previously heard the knife had to be surgically removed at a hospital.
In his closing address, defence barrister Jack Pappas argued his client had no intention to kill his wife that night and the act was not deliberate.
Instead, he suggested the woman was accidentally impaled when the couple collided while the "drunken and emotionally shattered" man was "running around" with the knife.
The jury ultimately found the man guilty of attempted murder after deliberating for just over a day. As a result, the jury did not have to return verdicts for the alternative charges.
The man will be sentenced at a later date before Justice Belinda Baker.
