A woman on trial for murdering her mother expressed remorse for the killing and told a psychologist she wished she was dead instead, a court has been told.
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Gabrielle Woutersz, 25, is accused of striking Norma Cheryl Woutersz, 56, to death with a hammer at their Dunlop home in October 2014.
It's alleged she heard voices in her head as she fatally struck her mother before trying to bury her body in a garden bed in the backyard.
Woutersz was arrested after her father arrived home to find his wife dead, suffering significant head injuries, and the defendant cooking eggs in the kitchen.
She pleaded not guilty to murder and her ACT Supreme Court jury trial has entered its third week.
The jury has been told the killing is not in dispute.
Prosecutors claim Woutersz's extensive past use of drugs, including ice, contributed to her mental state at the time of the killing, while Woutersz's defence has argued she suffered a mental illness and shouldn't be held morally responsible.
Jurors heard evidence on Monday from psychologist Thabile Twala, who assessed Woutersz in the weeks after her mother's death.
In a mental state examination, Ms Twala had noted Woutersz seemed hopeless and had expressed "profound guilt and remorse over her incarceration and her mother's death".
Ms Twala said Woutersz told her she wished she was dead instead of her mother, but didn't want to put her family through additional pain.
Woutersz had told the psychologist, who noted the defendant appeared remorseful and distressed, that she'd "messed up" her father's life.
She'd also referred to hearing voices in her head and said: "I feel lonely without the voices. They did not do anything wrong."
Ms Twala said the defendant's father had later visited her in custody, which she said was an important event in her treatment, and Woutersz told the psychologist she had been surprised by his warm reception.
"Her father told her the whole family love and care about her," Ms Twala said.
Psychiatrist Bree Wyeth told the court Woutersz had presented as "very unwell" soon after the fatal attack and while she'd displayed glimpses of recognition about what had occurred, she had still been confused about how it happened.
She believed she'd been told to act by voices in her head, Ms Wyeth said, and appeared to be emerging from "a highly disorganised and acutely psychotic state".
In his evidence, forensic pathologist Paul Bedford said an autopsy revealed Mrs Woutersz died from extensive head and facial injuries caused by blunt force trauma.
She'd suffered multiple fractures to her skull and face, injuries to her brain and multiple bruises from lacerations to her scalp, placing her injuries at the "higher end of injury or force".
Dr Bedford said while it was difficult to say how many blows had been dealt, the victim had clearly been struck multiple times.
The trial continues before Chief Justice Helen Murrell on Tuesday.
