A woman accused of striking her mother to death with a hammer before attempting to bury her body in their backyard could hear voices and was likely psychotic at the time, a psychiatrist told a court.
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Gabrielle Woutersz's ACT Supreme Court trial heard she showed symptoms of psychosis, including delusional beliefs, auditory hallucinations and grandiose thoughts around the time she allegedly killed Norma Cheryl Woutersz, 56.
Woutersz, 25, was charged with murder after her father arrived home to find his wife dead at the family's Dunlop home in October 2014.
It's alleged Woutersz, who had only recently returned from interstate, repeatedly hit her mother in the head with the weapon, shattering her skull, before she tried to put her body in a garden bed.
Her defence team is not disputing the killing, but argues the defendant was mentally impaired at the time.
The prosecution says Woutersz's altered state of mind stemmed from her extensive drug use in the lead-up to the fatal attack.
Jurors on Monday heard evidence from psychiatrist Bruce Westmore, who interviewed Woutersz about six months after the killing.
Dr Westmore said Woutersz had displayed a wide range of symptoms consistent with psychosis, which could have been caused by a mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or by drug use.
He believed Woutersz was likely suffering from acute psychosis and was experiencing auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions at the time.
The court heard the accused claimed she was hearing voices the day of the alleged murder, when she smashed her mother on the head with a rock, then with the hammer, before she went outside and dug a grave.
Woutersz thought her father was "over-reacting" when she heard him screaming when he arrived home and found his wife's body, the court was told.
She had allegedly told the psychiatrist: "For a long period of time, I thought I could bring my mum back ... and it's really sad because she's not coming back."
The court heard Woutersz began using cannabis and ecstasy as a teenager, later using prescription medication and cocaine before she started to binge heavily on ice in 2014.
Dr Westmore said heavy use of ice could trigger psychotic behaviour, or for a person predisposed to a mental illness it could "tip them over the edge".
Under cross-examination from defence barrister Bernard Collaery, Dr Westmore said some people who experienced psychotic symptoms started to take drugs in an effort to reduce their symptoms, which often led to a "conundrum" as to which came first.
Forensic psychiatrist David Greenberg told the court Woutersz had likely been psychotic, given she had previously been diagnosed with a psychotic illness, showed symptoms of psychosis and displayed "incongruent" behaviour after the killing.
Professor Greenberg wrote in a report Woutersz was an "unreliable historian" with regard to her use of illicit substances in the lead up to the killing, which made it difficult to ascertain the type of psychosis she was suffering at the time.
The trial continues before Chief Justice Helen Murrell.
