A key witness in the trial of a man charged with attempted murder says she was "over tired" and forced into agreeing to what police told her when making her statement.
Sameh Khalil Salem Ali's trial began in the High Court at Hamilton today, defending the charge from an alleged incident in a Chartwell house on October 20 last year.
Ali, who faces an alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, allegedly told friends immediately after the alleged late night incident that he just "snapped" after seeing the hand of the victim, Mika Taupau, on his ex partner's bottom.
Crown prosecutor Ross Douch earlier told the jury of seven women and five men that Ali, his former partner Leone Macwan, and other friends had been drinking at the Sefton Cres house when the victim turned up.
After several hours the pair ended up in Macwan's bedroom. Allegedly hearing laughter, Ali is accused of going into the room, slicing the back of Taupau's neck, and running off.
Ali, 42, denies being involved in the incident and says he was standing outside when it happened.
Macwan was the first to take the stand this morning.
She had known Ali for eight years and the pair were together for six to seven years and during that time had a daughter.
The pair had been separated for nearly a year at the time of the incident. When asked by Douch if Ali wanted to get back together, she laughed and said he didn't.
She said she didn't know Taupau very well and it was his first time at her house.
After several hours drinking, and with a box of pre-mixed bourbon in a backpack, she and Taupau decided to go for a walk, looking for lawn mowing jobs.
"We just went around neighbouring streets, Bankwood [St], we didn't go too far."
When they got back the pair went into her room, which she described as "communal .. that door is open all the time", and Taupau charged his phone.
All of a sudden she heard "Ow, f*** man you cut me" and she turned around and saw the blood coming out of his neck.
However, when questioned by Douch about whether she recalled seeing a purple-coloured cotton sleeve, like that off a hoodie, reach over her shoulder to do the stabbing, she denied that ever happened.
Ali was wearing a purple hoodie on the night.
"I made my statement because I was over tired ... I just wanted to do a statement so I could see [Ali] ... I just wanted that [police] interview over. He pretty much just started putting colours in my head."
In her evidence, Macwan said she repeatedly told the interviewing officer she'd had no sleep.
"I had insomnia."
"Are you telling us that you deliberately made a statement that you knew to be false?" Douch asked her.
"Yes," she responded. "I was so tired ... he never gave me a break."
In questioning from Ali's counsel Roger Laybourn, Macwan said she'd had no sleep and was stressed because she had family coming over from Australia for a wedding due to arrive that day, and everyone had been locked out of the house due to a forensic examination.
Laybourn asked about the stroke she suffered five years earlier, and Macwan said she still suffered the effects from it, including poor concentration after questioning over long periods.
Laybourn also asked her about a young man she and Taupau had met at the nearby dairy while they were out looking for lawn mowing jobs.
She couldn't recall any tensions between the pair but did recall the young man walking back with them to a party across the street, and later seeing the young man in the kitchen with the complainant.
"So you remember the young man being in the house but you didn't think of that when talking to the police?" Laybourn asked her.
"Yes," Macwan replied.
The trial before a jury of seven women and five men is set down for four days.
It is being overseen by Justice Mathew Downs.