Jury retires to decide verdicts in attempted murder trial

The jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of a Waihī woman accused of trying to kill her former partner. Photo/file

A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of a Waihī woman accused of trying to kill her former partner by grabbing the steering wheel of the car, resulting in a head-on crash.

Maxine Avlon Paul, 58, who is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua has denied a charge of attempting to murder her former partner Mark Bickley on January 7, 2017.

Bickley claimed his then-partner Paul twice grabbed the steering wheel of his station wagon as they headed home to Waihī on State Highway 2 in Aongatete.

The force sent his car careering over the centreline and it instantly hit the Hilux, he said.

Paul also denied two charges of dangerous driving causing injury to Hamilton couple Ciaran Dunn and Zoe Rothie.

During his closing address, Paul's lawyer Bill Nabney told the jury that Bickley fabricated a story to shift the blame for the crash onto the accused.

Bickley had been "quite calculated" in his responses under cross-examination as he knew he would be facing criminal charges if it was found he caused the collision, Nabney said.

Crown prosecutor Heidi Wrigley said Paul's "highly deliberate act" of steering the car into the path of oncoming traffic was a "death wish" by her after she "snapped".

Wrigley said despite some inconsistencies under cross-examination by the defence lawyer, in terms of the core pieces of evidence Bickley was "honest and reliable" witness.

His testimony was also consistent with the evidence of other Crown witnesses and the police crash analyst conclusions about the path the station wagon had taken, she said.