Ice user stabbed over 'erratic' behaviour

The deadly stabbing of a Newcastle ice user after erratic behaviour including insults and incessant barking was not murder but self- defence, a jury has been told.

Ian Matthew Conway has admitted stabbing Christopher Ward with a hunting knife at his Broadmeadow home on March 7, 2021 after inviting him over to take ice.

However, the 47-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder, saying he had made a "poking motion" with the hunting knife towards Ward's abdomen in self-defence.

"He genuinely believed that he did what he did in order to defend himself. The case for the accused is that he did not intend to cause Mr Ward really serious injury and did not intend to kill him," defence barrister Dennis Stewart told 12 jurors on Tuesday.

Conway attempted to defuse the situation "diplomatically" but had been forced to take up a weapon when Mr Ward grabbed the hunting knife on the coffee table, the court heard.

"The accused feared that Mr Ward would use the knife, that he would use the knife to cause serious injury or kill the accused," Mr Stewart said.

Mr Ward died at around 11.30pm at John Hunter Hospital on March 8. An autopsy revealed the knife had punctured his liver and nicked his colon. Methylamphetamine, the active ingredient of ice, was also found in his blood.

In his openings, the crown prosecutor said the then 56-year-old victim had been stabbed around 8pm when Conway's wife Katrina Coughlan and a neighbour were also at home.

While Coughlan who was ill and in a wheelchair at the time did not see the incident, the neighbour claims Mr Ward was sitting next to her on the couch when the alleged attack occurred.

Mr Ward had behaved erratically before the stabbing, pulling apart a kettle in the kitchen, getting down on all fours to bark at the door, and insulting both Coughlan and the neighbour, jurors heard.

The neighbour is the Crown's key witness in the case and is expected to say Conway placed the hunting knife on a table, challenging Mr Ward to a fight before stabbing him.

The seriousness of the injury was only apparent when Mr Ward lifted up his shirt, the prosecutor said.

"(The neighbour) could see - she thought they looked like little worms but were really intestines," he said.

When the shirt was lifted, Conway allegedly said, "f***, well you shouldn't have disrespected my girl. She's sick."

Jurors heard that the neighbour initially gave a false account of what had happened during a triple-zero call, telling operators that Mr Ward had turned up that night already stabbed.

Conway is alleged to have continued the lie when talking to police at a McDonald's and during a recorded police interview on March 9.

"He's a bit angry at the police, telling them they should be looking for the true assailant and to stop wasting time talking to him," the prosecutor said.

Mr Stewart said his client admitted fleeing the crime scene in panic and also to giving a false account to police afterwards.

Also on March 9, the neighbour approached police with one of Conway's long-sleeved T-shirts, giving what she claimed was the true account of what had happened two days earlier. 

The jury heard Conway was arrested on March 16 and that his wife was also charged with hindering a police investigation.

If jurors were not satisfied Conway had intended to kill or cause serious bodily harm to Mr Ward, prosecutors have urged them to still find him guilty of manslaughter.

The trial in front of Justice Helen Wilson continues.