Woman didn't want ex dead: lawyer

UPDATE: A woman accused of murdering her former lover wanted him out of her life but she didn't want him dead, her lawyer has told a Supreme Court jury.

Tamara Kathleen Broadbent, Kym Steven Foster, Gary David Young and Damien Paul Kosick are on trial accused of murdering David Blenkinsopp in March 2012.

Prosecutors allege Mr Blenkinsopp was shot several times and hit by a car near his Wanneroo home before he was buried in a bush grave in Pinjar, north of Perth.

The court has been told Ms Broadbent and Mr Blenkinsopp had had an affair and their relationship was turbulent and at times violent.

In his opening address to the jury, Ms Broadbent's lawyer Simon Freitag said the former couple's relationship had been about sex and violence and although she may have wanted him out of her life, she did not want him dead.

He said Ms Broadbent admitted she was present and had helped dig her former boyfriend's grave, but it was Mr Young who shot Mr Blenkinsopp.

Mr Freitag said there had been a plan to scare Mr Blenkinsopp away, but the plan went "horribly, catastrophically wrong".

He said Ms Broadbent was aware a gun was being taken, but she did not know it was loaded and it was only if "worse came to worse that it would be pointed at him to scare him".

Defence lawyers for Mr Kosick and Mr Foster have also said on behalf of their clients that Mr Young was the one who shot Mr Blenkinsopp.

Prosecutors allege the four accused were socialising at Mr Kosick's Morley home, when they became a "cauldron of simmering anger towards Mr Blenkinsopp" after Ms Broadbent claimed she received a threatening call from him.

Mr Freitag said his client had given two interviews to police and although the first one was dishonest and had contained lies, he suggested to the jury, the second interview was a confession about what happened.

Mr Foster's lawyer Anthony Eyers said his client - who had started dating Ms Broadbent - admitted he was present when Mr Blenkinsopp was shot and run over, but he had no idea that it was going to happen.

He urged the jury to consider whether Mr Foster was "literally and metaphorically a passenger" in the events leading up to Mr Blenkinsopp's death.

Mr Kosick's lawyer Tom Percy told the jury that there was only one person responsible for the death and that was Mr Young.

He said Mr Kosick had not been part of any plan that would have resulted in a person's life being taken.

He said Mr Kosick admitted hitting Mr Blenkinsopp with the car, but he walked in front of the vehicle and there was not enough time to stop.

Mr Percy said Mr Kosick had claimed that Mr Young had held a gun to his head and told him "in no uncertain terms" to drive and do what he was told.

Mr Kosick said Mr Young had also made threats that he and his family would be killed if he told anyone about what had happened, Mr Percy told the jury.

Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca told the jury they would hear evidence from Mr Kosick's estranged wife that the group had returned home with blood on their clothes and had told her they had hit a kangaroo.

He said Mrs Kosick had helped them clean the inside of the car, which was covered in blood.

Mr Fiannaca argued that it would be suggested alleged lies told by the accused in their police interviews pointed to a consciousness of guilt.

Mr Young's lawyer Andrew Skerritt told the jury his client was not one of the people who killed Mr Blenkinsopp.

He said the jury would hear from the people who did kill him - people he said were desperate to save their own necks and desperate to shift the blame on to others.

Mr Blenkinsopp's widow, Dianna, has taken the stand in the trial telling jurors she became aware of her husband's affair with Ms Broadbent in August 2011.

She testified there was one occasion when she spoke to her husband and she heard Ms Broadbent yelling in the background that he should go back to his wife and that she would kill him, his wife and their children.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Blenkinsopp denied making it up.

The trial will resume tomorrow.