HIDDEN TRAUMA: Ex-South Albury man found not guilty of manslaughter over partner's death

It was the "sorry business" though that enveloped Kumanjayi Enalanga, in the traditional mourning period for her grandmother.

The elder's death had tipped her into what might have been confronting for the non-Indigenous; wailing and the self-flagellation, what outwardly appeared to be an intense, inward violence.

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Still, this manifestation of grief through hitting herself over the head with a bottle, with banging her head on the wall of her South Albury flat, would have unintended, fatal consequences.

Her partner, Greg Trimmings, was charged with murder, replaced a year later by an an allegation of manslaughter for which he has now been acquitted in a judge-only District Court trial in Albury.

Chronic alcoholism over much of her life had already committed the 46-year-old mother-of-three, who had put her true identity aside for a European name, of Ingrid Driver, to a likely early death.

Into that picture though, creating a complexity of personal tragedy for Ms Driver, came the domestic violence of a relationship begun with Mr Trimmings in Adelaide.

What bound them together was an inability to escape the saturation of their drinking.

That was until three years ago, when neighbours heard the yelling and screaming of death threats.

And then came the emergency call.

There is a lady there. She got - she's like unconscious and like blood coming out of the mouth ... or nose or something ... and then her grandmother died, and she was knocking her head like headbutting the wall

- Triple-0 call, April 30, 2018, 7.37am

That was her partner.

He wasn't staying, said he couldn't go back to help, but she was unconscious on a sofa bed. A tick under 12 hours later she died, of a right subdural haemorrhage, in Albury hospital.

Much earlier, around 9am, he had chatted to a stranger at nearby Aloysius Park.

Me wife's Aboriginal. One of the elders killed themselves. My wife couldn't deal with it so she's been taking it out on herself. She was headbutting the wall last night

- Greg Trimmings

The case hinged on whether Ms Driver's death was the direct result of a physical assault by Mr Trimmings or the consequence of her terrible state of health.

A key defence submission from barrister Eric Wilson SC was the evidence put to a special hearing in Albury Local Court in July, 2019, by forensic pathologist Dr Jane Vuletic.

She testified there was a credible link between the victim's liver cirrhosis and the subdural hematoma that ultimately killed Ms Driver.

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Further, her brain had signs of atrophy, which meant there was more room for it to move when her head shook, causing bleeding.

She also had pancreatitis and Hepatitis C.

In a lengthy finding, Judge Sean Grant pointed to the evidence of the accused at the time of Ms Driver's death - Mr Trimmings did not testify in court - of her hitting herself with the bottle.

He noted how Dr Vuletic had "conceded" that the haemorrhage could have resulted from some form of minor trauma on the evening before her death, "resulting in a bleed overnight" that presented in the morning as bloodied nostrils, mouth gurgling and a struggle for breath.

This was "consistent with the accused's observations".

HIDDEN TRAUMA - IN DEPTH:

It was, nevertheless, a highly volatile situation in the couple's Olive Street flat.

While he considered much of the South Australian evidence to carry little if any relative weight, being "remote in time", Judge Grant found otherwise on the evidence from Albury.

Tellingly, they both still drank to excess, he said.

The dead woman's mother, Yvonne Driver, from South Australia, said her daughter told her that Mr Trimmings "punched her on the top of her head while she was sleeping".

That was rejected by Mr Wilson as inadmissible, being first-hand, hearsay evidence, a submission Judge Grant accepted.

The Albury witness statements though were deemed relevant to "the facts in issue".

Verbal abuse and heated conversations between the couple were heard across January and February, 2018.

One witness heard Mr Trimmings telling Ms Driver: "I'll f ... in smash you and I'll f ... ing kill you."

Another said she recalled an aggressive man yelling and screaming at Ms Driver and threatening her harm.

Others made similar statements.

It was clear they were in a "turbulent" relationship, Judge Grant said, just not with the physical violence of South Australia.

This violence-quelled coincided with a change in circumstances, where Ms Driver was twice admitted to Albury hospital for treatment in the two months before her death for progressive, liver failure-related conditions.

It was clear to her family that Kumanjayi "Ingrid Driver" Enalanga was a victim, even if no physical act from her partner caused her death.

Soon after she died, her children were reportedly "devastated" by her loss to the "tragedy" of domestic violence.

Family member Marcellus Enalanga said at the time how this affected "so many families and it tears them apart".

"We can't believe she is gone."

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