A woman accused of murdering her de facto partner and dumping his torso on the side of a road claimed he attacked her after she confronted him over his bisexuality, a Brisbane court has heard.
Lindy Yvonne Williams has denied killing George Gerbic, claiming the 66-year-old hit his head after slipping on her blood in their Sunshine Coast home on September 2013.
Williams claimed she fled their house and returned two days later to find him decapitated, his hands and legs cut off and wrapped in plastic.
Mr Gerbic's torso was found dumped and ablaze by the side of a road some 80 kilometres from where he was allegedly killed, Williams' Brisbane Supreme Court trial heard on Monday.
Police attempts to identify the charred remains using prescription medicine samples led them in July 2014 to his Tanawha home, where Williams initially said Mr Gerbic was in Brazil for the World Cup.
She also claimed he had recently invited her by email to meet him in Hawaii.
After police found no evidence he had left Australia, Williams tearfully claimed Mr Gerbic hit his head on the corner of a kitchen benchtop when he slipped after he attacked her with a knife, cutting her arm.
"She told (a friend) that George had cut her after he confronted him about him being gay and having a male partner," crown prosecutor Todd Fuller QC said in opening submissions.
Williams told police Mr Gerbic had a "bad temper" and struggled with his bisexuality, and he had used a second phone to maintain a relationship with a man.
In a recorded interview played in court, she told police that she ran into a bedroom after Mr Gerbic hit his head, emerging the next day to see him on the kitchen floor.
She said she left and returned two days later to find his headless body also missing legs and hands.
Williams has pleaded guilty to interfering with his corpse after admitting to dumping the torso by Cedar Pocket Road near Gympie and setting fire to the grassy area.
Her lawyer Simon Lewis said Mr Gerbic's death was the result of an accident, and Williams' attempts to cover it up by disposing of the corpse and lying about him being overseas did not mean she was responsible.
"This isn't a whodunnit," Mr Lewis told the court.
"It might be a howdunnit. It's more about the circumstances in which a disaster has occurred."
The defence did not offer an explanation on how Mr Gerbic was dismembered or who by in opening statements.
The trial continues.
Australian Associated Press
