KEY POINTS:
The wife of a man who is charged with murder after he allegedly caused a fatal head-on car crash has told a court he would not have attempted suicide if it risked the life of anyone else.
Tony Allan Worrell, 49, was committed to stand trial yesterday after
a depositions hearing at the Manukau District Court.
Police allege he deliberately drove into the car driven by newlywed Katie Powles, who died three hours later in hospital from massive internal injuries.
He faces an attempted murder charge in relation to another car he crashed into that seriously injured a man who was driving his young sons home from soccer practice, and six other assault charges where he allegedly drove at four other cars which were forced to swerve to avoid him.
Lynette Worrell, who was separated from Worrell but still living in the same house as him, told the court of a phone call she received from him shortly before the crash. He told her he was looking for something "big" - which she thought was a big burger to eat with his medication for diabetes.
"But then he ended the sentence with semi which I assumed he meant semi-trailer."
When she did not reply to him he said goodbye and hung up.
Worrell made the phone call about 15 minutes after he left their Swanson home.
Under cross-examination from Worrell's lawyer, Matthew Goodwin, Mrs Worrell said she thought the comment about looking for a big semi was made flippantly.
"If Tony wanted to commit suicide he would have used insulin. He's a diabetic and he knows what effect it has. I firmly believe he would never deliberately hurt anyone else."
Earlier she described returning home from an appointment and finding him drunk.
He was swaying, had slurred speech and a heavy look about his eyes.
"His drinking had been a problem for a while. I had enough of it and asked him to leave the house."
She gave him a deadline of the end of the week but he started packing that afternoon.
When she told him it was not a good idea to be driving in his condition she said he just shrugged his shoulders.
Asked how drunk he appeared on a scale of one to 10, she said he was about a "five or a six".
Prosecutor Kirsten Gray asked her how she felt about him driving in his condition.
"I knew that he shouldn't. [Before he left] he said I'd be better off without him."
Mrs Worrell had brought him home from hospital where he had been admitted after taking a combination of diazepam and alcohol.
Worrell cried during his wife's evidence and at one point, as she spoke of the strain his drinking put on their marriage, he mouthed, "Sorry about that," to her.
She said he had type one diabetes which required him to take insulin four times a day and if his blood sugar was too low he could become disoriented.
Mr Goodwin: "How would he initially appear once this started?"
"Very much as though he was inebriated ... his speech was slurred, he had erratic behaviour and wasn't sure of what was happening," she said.
Worrell was remanded in custody until callover in the High Court on February 11 where a trial date is likely to be set.
