Woman attacked with axe and choked, trial told

Rex Martinich | April 26, 2023

A woman has told a Queensland jury that she was choked three times as she tried to flee her ex-boyfriend’s hatchet attack in a multi-storey car park.

Former Government House security guard Cameron Turgay Bardak faced the second day of his trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday after pleading not guilty to attempting to murder Maria Buci on July 1, 2020 at a Brisbane’s CBD car park.

Bardak, then aged 29, had pleaded guilty as an alternate charge to causing grievous bodily harm to Ms Buci, then aged 27, whose finger was struck by a hatchet during the attack and suffered injuries to her throat, shoulder and legs.

Ms Buci gave evidence about the car park incident, which she said left her with physical scars and “still messed up mentally”.

She was examined over 55 pages of text messages exchanged with Bardak after he told her at lunchtime on the day of the attack that he wanted to end the relationship.

When Ms Buci returned to her office, Bardak started sending her messages “begging” for her to take him back. He turned abusive when she refused and then stated his life was over.

Ms Buci said she felt an intuition to look out for Bardak while she was walking through the car park and spotted him hiding behind a concrete pillar next to her BMW X4 wagon.

“I asked him why he was there and he said to give my stuff back. I asked where my stuff was and he said ‘get in the car’. I said ‘no’ and he pushed towards the passenger side of the car,” Ms Buci said.

“He said ‘I’m going to kill you’ and that’s when I saw the axe. Then I started screaming and he pushed me against the wall. He had his hand covering my mouth.”

Ms Buci said Bardak hit her with the axe, causing her to fall down before hitting her again while her hands were covering her head and then started choking her with one hand.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook asked Ms Buci how that felt.

“Like I was being strangled,” Ms Buci said.

“It felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

Ms Buci said one person tried to intervene and was joined by others who then were able to lift Bardak’s hands off her throat.

Under cross-examination by Bardak’s barrister, Matthew Hyne, Ms Buci agreed that her initial police statement was correct that Bardak did not attempt to hit her a second time while she was on the ground.

Ms Buci accepted that she had formed a “presumption” on exactly when and how her head, finger and shoulder were injured.

She denied Mr Hyne’s suggestion that Bardak did not choke her three times and that he never said he was going to kill her.

“(Bardak) definitely said ‘I’m going to kill you’. That’s something I will never, ever forget and I will live with every day” Ms Buci said.

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