Qld: Woman found guilty on two counts of attempted murder

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2004
Qld: Woman found guilty on two counts of attempted murder

By Johanna Leggatt

BRISBANE, April 3 AAP - A woman has been found guilty of trying to murder her estranged
husband by running him down in a four-wheel-drive vehicle on a Brisbane vacant lot.

Phirajit (Phirajit) Evans, 41, of Wakerley in Brisbane, was found guilty in the Brisbane
Supreme Court this morning on two counts of attempting to murder her husband Christopher
James Evans, a 41-year-old gardener from Manly West on Brisbane's bayside.

The jury found Evans not guilty on two counts of attempting to murder her husband's
16-month-old son from another relationship.

Evans had pleaded not guilty to a total of four counts of attempted murder after being
accused of twice ramming the pair.

She will be sentenced at a date yet to be fixed.

The court heard Evans drove to her husband's house at 7am (AEST) on October 1, 2002,
after phoning to abuse him for not paying her tax bill.

Mr Evans, who had separated from his wife in February 2000, was walking his son in
a pram when she turned up.

"She started yelling that it was the ugliest baby in the world, and `You'll never live
to enjoy the baby'," Mr Evans told the jury.

Mr Evans said he feared for his and his son's life as his estranged wife driving the
4WD chased him into a vacant lot.

"I was going as fast as I could run, but it wasn't fast enough," Mr Evans said.

The court was told that Evans rammed her husband, hitting him in the back and catapulting
him in the air.

Mr Evans said he panicked and feared his baby son was dead when he saw the pram was
in pieces and the capsule flipped over and practically flattened.

Before he had time to check on the baby who was still strapped inside, Evans came at
them again. He said he then tried to run for protection behind a car but his wife rammed
the vehicle, missing him by centimetres.

She then drove off.

The baby suffered bruises and abrasions to his scalp, cheek and arm but sustained no
fractures or brain damage.

Mr Evans escaped with minor injuries.

AAP jtl/cdh/bwl

KEYWORD: EVANS

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.