She took a gun to kill, but jury set her free

Catherine Smith leaves court.

AS CATHERINE SMITH emerged from the darkness, she pulled back the slide on the black semi-automatic pistol, her finger firmly on the trigger.

"I'll kill you, you bastard," she allegedly said, pointing it at her former husband, Kevin Smith.

Ms Smith, 58, said it had taken 30 years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the man she once loved to reach breaking point. That moment came on the evening of June 14, 2006, when the mother of six was charged with shooting her former husband outside a boarding house in Manly with the intent to murder him. Two shots were fired, but nobody was hurt.

It took just 25 minutes for the District Court jury to find her not guilty of attempted murder and that she had acted in self defence.

Outside court a jubilant Ms Smith said she was pleased about the verdict. Her lawyers called it a victory for battered wives.

Ms Smith, who the court was told had been diagnosed with chronic post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the years of abuse, had earlier pleaded guilty to possessing an unlicensed firearm. However Judge Greg Hosking chose to impose no sentence or conviction against her.

Much of what Ms Smith told the court she endured over her 30-year marriage is unfit to print.

The court heard Mr Smith had threatened her at various times with guns, a skinning knife, a fire poker and tortured her with an electric cattle prod. He held guns to her throat and between her eyes and shot at her on several occasions as she ran for her life. One evening she ran more than 25 kilometres along railway tracks to escape.

As Mr Smith strode confidently into the courtroom to give his evidence Ms Smith sat with her head down. She could not look at him and her body trembled.

His mantra throughout the marriage had been "If you leave me, bitch, I'll hunt you down and kill you", the court had heard.

She said she feared he would do just that if she did not get to him first.

Despite countless complaints, statement and letters Ms Smith and her family gave to police, Mr Smith has not been charged for any offences relating to abuse. Mr Smith had repeatedly denied the allegations of abuse put to him throughout the trial, describing them as "ridiculous". He told the jury: "I do not have a violent bone in my body." He agreed to give evidence only after being offered immunity from prosecution for anything he might say. That did not include immunity from perjury.

Judge Hosking ordered that transcripts from the trial be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine whether any serious indictable offences may have arisen from any of the evidence given.

Defence counsel Mark Dennis described Mr Smith as a "master manipulator", "a psychopath" and a man who was "capable of extreme violence and was prepared to take a life if the whim took him". In 2000 he was jailed for holding one of his sons and his partner for 27 hours until they revealed Ms Smith's whereabouts.

Outside court Ms Smith told reporters she thought they would still "be preyed on" by her former husband. "I just want him gone from our lives," she said.

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