Perth woman recalls moment partner shot dead by masked intruders
A Perth woman has recalled the moment she was disturbed in the middle of the night, only to pull open her bedroom curtains and be confronted by a masked intruder who fired a sawn-off shotgun through the window, killing her partner.
Ralph Matthews-Cox, 47, died as a result of those wounds and the man accused of being responsible, Peter Nguyen-Ha, 34, is currently on trial charged with his murder.
On Tuesday, Matthews-Cox's partner, Tammy Wallace, told a Supreme Court jury she heard a noise in the early hours of January 12, 2022, and peeled back the curtains of the bedroom window in her Landsdale home to see what caused the disturbance.
She said she came face-to-face with a man dressed in black and wearing a COVID-style mask, before screaming and stepping away from the window.
Police allege Nguyen-Ha then fired the shots, claiming he was looking for a man who had stolen thousands of dollars of drug money from him days earlier.
Nguyen-Ha denies the allegations.
At the start of the trial two weeks ago, prosecutor Beau Sertorio told the jury Matthews-Cox was shot mistakenly as Nguyen-Ha tried to enact revenge for the theft.
'The story of this trial doesn't begin with the fatal shooting, it begins earlier with dangerous and deliberate choices,' Sertorio said.
'Choices rooted in the underworld of drug dealing.'
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She denied evidence from Ian Wilkinson that she had served the guests on four large grey plates while she ate from a smaller orange or tan plate. The trial continues. Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson has faced questions about whether she feigned her illness in the days following a deadly beef Wellington lunch. Patterson is set to spend a seventh day in the witness box in her Supreme Court trial as crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC continues her cross-examination. The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, as well as the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian. She denies she deliberately poisoned her lunch guests on July 29, 2023 when she served them death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellingtons, and claims it was a terrible accident. Dr Rogers on Tuesday accused the mushroom cook of faking her nausea, diarrhoea and abdominal pain in conversations with health professionals, her children and Simon. She suggested to Patterson the reason why she had told so many people about her symptoms was because she wanted to also appear unwell from the lunch. "You did that because you knew you had not eaten death cap mushrooms ... and you knew how suspicious it would look if you did not seem sick like your guests," the prosecutor said. "Incorrect," Patterson replied. Patterson was asked about the beef Wellington leftovers, with the prosecutor suggesting she had assisted police in finding the remains in her bin because "you knew you had no means of removing the leftovers from your bin by yourself". "Why wouldn't I just say there's no leftovers? That seems really convoluted," she replied. 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That seems really convoluted," she replied. The mushroom cook said she had "no idea" when Dr Rogers put to her that she directed police to the leftovers in her outside bin to avoid suspicion. Patterson had been accused of lying by the prosecutor as she disputed evidence from doctors, nurses and her estranged husband. She denied evidence from Ian Wilkinson that she had served the guests on four large grey plates while she ate from a smaller orange or tan plate. The trial continues.
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