The defence in an alleged kidnapping trial has labelled the Crown's witnesses "tarnished" from heavy drug use and warned the jury to be careful when trusting their accounts of the alleged events.
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Nigel Barlow, 37, and partner Janelle Lewis, 33, faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court over the last few weeks accused of entering a man's house and assaulting him before driving him to a Wanniassa unit and chaining him to a stool.
Barlow faces further assault charges over allegations he hit the victim in the backyard – to which he has since admitted – and then kicked him while he was chained to the stool.
In closing arguments on Tuesday, Lewis' defence Theresa Warwick said at the time of the alleged offences in July 2015, the alleged victim and his partner were drug users.
She said their version of events at the house was different to four other witnesses, including the two accused, who had also given evidence at the trial.
The four other witnesses said a scuffle had broken out after the alleged victim had stepped outside the back door, and not inside the hallway, Ms Warwick said.
She added that: "If something did happen in the house [the alleged victim] tells us he was not threatened by Ms Lewis."
And the court had heard evidence from the victim's partner that Lewis' body language did not appear aggressive, she said.
She said Lewis had been concerned for the victim's welfare, picking up an oven mitt to put on his bleeding head.
"There was talk of getting help, and Ms Lewis said on more than one occasion" to go to the hospital, Ms Warwick said.
She said Lewis had left the house with Barlow in a different car to the victim, but was then "dragged back into these events" when the victim later got into their car on the Monaro Highway.
She said the victim had said of Lewis that she looked as though, "she didn't know what was going to happen either".
Ms Warwick said one witness who had described seeing the victim tied up in the unit had injected ice that morning and not slept for days. Another Crown witness to the alleged events at the Wanniassa unit had later lied to police, she said.
Barlow's lawyer Ray Livingston suggested to the jury they needed to be extremely careful when dealing with "tarnished witnesses".
He said at the time of the alleged offences, many of the witnesses in the trial had been heavily involved in using drugs.
He said they were not "reliable historians", and half "have professed they have virtually no memory of the events".
One witness had pleaded guilty for his role in the alleged offences, and was given a discount on his sentence on the basis he help the prosecution in this trial, Mr Livingston said. This gave him incentive to elevate the case against the accused, he said.
The jury will return on Wednesday to consider its verdict.
