A NSW man stabbed to death by his daughter was a violent and aggressive "nightmare", a jury has been told.
Maddison Hickson, 23, is on trial for the murder of her father Michael Carroll, who died after being stabbed twice in the heart on January 16 last year.
She admits stabbing the 51-year-old, however says she did so in self-defence.
The Newcastle Supreme Court has been told Mr Carroll was a convicted criminal regularly in and out of prison whose rap sheet included attacking a pregnant partner over her refusal to get an abortion.
"It's a sad but true fact that violence, threats and intimidation were part and parcel of Michael Carroll's life," Hickson's lawyer Peter Krisenthal said in his closing statement on Thursday.
"He was a nightmare and she was the only one still trying to help him."
Multiple witnesses testified that on the day of his death an argument broke out between the pair in which Mr Carroll called his daughter a "slut" and a "dog", before walking towards her aggressively with a knife.
Hickson's lawyer said "she grabbed that knife to save her life".
Hickson gave evidence that she was trying to mend her relationship with her father, however prosecutors argue she grabbed a knife and murdered him out of anger.
Mr Krisenthal asked the jury to consider whether it is "really plausible that in the midst of an argument that this lady armed herself and decided she was going to stab him because she was angry?".
"She was desperate for a relationship with her father - of all the girls she was the one most keen to have a relationship with him," he said.
After the stabbing, Hickson ran out of the house and fled to the home of her mother's neighbour, arriving in tears and covered in blood, the court heard.
"She runs out of the house and doesn't stop for anything, she doesn't look back and jumps straight in the car," Mr Krisenthal said.
"She was hysterical. Why? Because she was scared."
Crown prosecutor Brian Costello has told the jury Hickson stabbed her father spontaneously out of anger and frustration following the heated argument, and had not been in fear of him or acting in self-defence.
If the jury believes Hickson had been fearful, but her actions were not a reasonable response, they can find her guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The trial continues.
