A man has been found guilty of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and leaving her lying on the floor with a blood-soaked washcloth covering her wounds.
Anthony “Tony” Eriksen, 63, defended himself during a NSW Supreme Court trial after he pleaded not guilty to murdering his partner Lisa Fenwick in their Sydney apartment in April 2023.
The 59-year-old woman was found lying in her own blood on the floor of a bedroom with a bloodied washcloth covering her multiple stab wounds, the jury was told.
She had been repeatedly stabbed in her heart and lungs with a kitchen knife that was found in the sink with blood on the blade, crown prosecutor Daniel Boyle said.
Those allegations were accepted by jurors, who deliberated for little more than two hours today before finding Eriksen guilty of murder.
The jurors were told the de facto couple got into an argument after Fenwick sent Eriksen a text message with a link to a house-sharing website.
Fenwick was insistent that Eriksen move out of their Mascot apartment after she supported him for several years while he was unemployed.
Her friends testified that Fenwick had confided in them about her concerns and frustrations with Eriksen in the lead-up to her death.
“I am fearful of Tony. That is why I am telling you this,” she texted one friend.
“I just (need) to have a record if something happens to me.”
Paramedics told the court they found Fenwick with several stab wounds to her chest, abdomen and right arm, which they deemed “incompatible with life”.
Eriksen was wearing a bathrobe and with dried up blood on his face, wrist and right foot when the first responders arrived at the scene, the court was told.
In a triple-zero call, the jury heard Eriksen told the operator he had got into an argument with Fenwick and he had “put a knife in her”.
He will face sentencing at a later date.
