Woman acquitted for mother's attempted murder avoids jail time on drug test charge

Mary Ivanisevic, 45, was arranging her mother's funeral and in an "emotional state" when she missed a scheduled March court appearance, her defence counsel told the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Ms Ivanisevic pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to appear after a bail undertaking, and a separate charge of refusing to give an oral fluid sample for a drug driving test in November last year.

The defence told the court Ms Ivanisevic had quit heroin and methadone after a 20-year addiction.

Magistrate Beth Campbell said she accepted Ms Ivanisevic had been through "enormous emotional upheaval" in relation to her trial on a charge that she stabbed her elderly mother in the chest with a kitchen knife in an attempt to kill her.

However she said the woman was a "seasoned performer" in the court who knew her obligations.

"I've known Ms Ivanisevic for some time. She looks better at the moment than she has in decades," Magistrate Campbell said.

Ms Ivanisevic walked free after the magistrate convicted the 45-year-old over her failure to appear in court and backdated the sentence to the first day of her imprisonment 51 days ago, suspending the balance of the term from Thursday.

Magistrate Campbell also convicted Ms Ivanisevic and handed her a good behaviour order for 12 months for refusing to give an oral fluid sample, and disqualified her from driving for 18 months.

A jury acquitted Ms Ivanisevic in June after she was charged with attempting to murder her mother, who was found curled on the floor of her Curtin home, still attached to an oxygen machine and with a single stab wound, in December 2015.

Her mother, who had end-stage emphysema, has since died.

She pleaded not guilty in that case and emphatically denied the stabbing, insisting the woman had inflicted the injury herself in the weeks after her husband's death.