The man charged with the murder of Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The man charged with the murder of Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The man accused of raping and murdering Blessie Gotingco will tell the jury he was desperately looking for methamphetamine at the time of the alleged killing.
The 28-year-old, who has name suppression, this afternoon told the court for the first time he would take to the witness box to give evidence.
Amicus of the court Chris Wilkinson-Smith gave an opening statement on behalf of the accused.
"He's going to tell you exactly what happened on May 24," he said.
"This incident was an accident, not a deliberate running over."
For the first time the court was told about the defendant's personal circumstances leading up to the incident.
"For the first period of 2014 there were a series of family tragedies. He had an aunt who was very close to him who passed away under tragic circumstances, his mother had a serious stroke and was hospitalised and his pregnant partner had a miscarriage," Mr Wilkinson-Smith said.
"[His] way of dealing with that was to try and use drugs and he progressively went through synthetic cannabis, cannabis and on to harder drugs such as methamphetamine.
"In late May last year, drugs were the overriding influence in his life and going out and getting his daily fix was what he was concentrating on."
The lawyer said he spent much of May 24 driving round associates' houses trying to find more of the class-A drug.
The jury was told the defendant would also call a friend he spent time with on the day of Mrs Gotingco's death to give evidence.
While in the witness box, the murder-accused would also discuss the GPS anklet he was wearing at the time.
He understood it restricted him to his apartment during his curfew hours, while the Crown believed the stabbing that led to Mrs Gotingco's death took place in the garage below.
The Crown case is that just before 8pm on May 24, the defendant deliberately ran Mrs Gotingco down in his car as she walked home along Salisbury Rd from work.
It is alleged he then bundled her into his car and took her back to his home where he raped her, slit her throat and stabbed her to death, before dumping the body at a nearby cemetery.
Mrs Gotingco's body was found two days after the alleged killing and the 28-year-old defendant was charged with committing the murder on May 27, after a dawn raid on his Birkdale property.
Mr Wilkinson-Smith urged the jury to keep an open mind and not take any negative inference from the defendant stepping into the witness box.
"[Him] calling evidence doesn't change who has to prove these charges, it just means you're getting to hear more evidence," he said.
