Robert Jeffrey
A DEFENCE witness has claimed that Leanne Lawson stabbed her son at least four times with a screwdriver the night before her partner was seriously assaulted.
Tristan Thomas gave evidence yesterday in the trial of Robert Wayne Jeffrey, 51, who is accused of seriously assaulting Ms Lawson’s partner Robert Linane on March 6 last year.
But the prosecution claims that Mr Thomas’s evidence was made up, and that he was told to give it.
In the County Court in Ballarat, Mr Thomas told the jury how he and Ms Lawson’s son Dylan had ended up at her house in Walker Street on the night of March 5 last year.
He said he and Dylan were drunk at the time, and Dylan was carrying a handbag belonging to his girlfriend Tiffany Jeffrey – Robert Jeffrey’s daughter.
Mr Thomas said Dylan and Ms Lawson started talking before an argument unfolded and things turned violent.
“Dylan’s mum started stabbing him with a screwdriver which I seen in her hand,” he said.
“As soon as I seen her stabbing him, another guy came out from the back room.”
Mr Thomas said Dylan then swung Ms Lawson and the other man – Mr Linane – around before telling him to “run”. “Then I saw the other guy, Robbie Linane come flying out and he had a hammer in his hands.”
Mr Thomas said he and Dylan ran in different directions before meeting up a short time later. When asked what type of fences he jumped, Mr Thomas said he wasn’t sure.
In her questioning of the witness, crown prosecutor Wendy Duncan repeatedly claimed that Mr Thomas was telling lies.
“In fact this is all being made up and you can’t quite stick to the script,” she said, after claiming a discrepancy in his version of events.
“I suggest to you that’s complete fiction, it’s a complete story.”
In her evidence last week, Ms Lawson said Jeffrey and three other men had entered her home on the afternoon of March 6 last year.
She said the men went to find Mr Linane while she ran outside and called triple-zero.
Mr Linane was assaulted, suffered serious head injuries and spent three months in hospital.
Jeffrey has pleaded not guilty to charges including intentionally causing serious injury and aggravated burglary.
The trial before Judge Tony Howard continues.