A MAN who was allegedly shot at by his former wife has denied he physically and verbally abused her during their 30-year marriage.
Kevin Smith, 59, yesterday gave evidence against Catherine Smith, who is on trial in the Sydney District Court for shooting at him in June 2006.
Mr Smith, who was granted immunity from prosecution for his evidence, denied allegations by the defence counsel, Mark Dennis, that he raped her throughout their marriage, shot at her and tortured her with an electric cattle prod. "I haven't got a violent bone in my body," he said.
Smith, 57, has pleaded not guilty to shooting at Mr Smith as he sat outside a property in Manly, but she has pleaded guilty to possessing a gun without a licence.
She allegedly told police she had gone there to kill her former husband, but had done so in self-defence after 30 years of abuse.
Mr Dennis alleged that early in their marriage Mr Smith had pointed a gun at his wife, stripped her naked and tried to strangle her with an electrical cord. "I suggest to you that you completed your activity with the electrical cord by putting your knee into your wife's back and saying 'Ah, that's done'," Mr Dennis said. "You thought you'd killed her, didn't you?"
"No, that's rubbish," Mr Smith said.
Mr Dennis presented Mr Smith with a number of other allegations of physical violence, including one in which he allegedly threatened Smith with a skinning knife as she was leaving the bedroom and told her to "get back here you f---ing bitch or I'll cut your throat".
Mr Smith denied each allegation and said he had never been arrested or charged for any violence against his former wife. "Where's all this coming from?" he said. "If I'm this bogy man monster that you're portraying me to be, why don't I have big eyes and horns sticking out of my head?"