An Australian National University tutor told a jury on Thursday she owes her life to a hard yellow notebook after she used it to shield herself from blows by a student wielding a baseball bat.
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The tutor said she was struck on the head during the attack and fell unconscious before getting up and trying to call security and police.
She suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, concussion and a cut to the head as well as a welt on her chest.
Another student told the attempted murder trial both her arms were broken in the attack after she held them up to protect her head.
Alex Ophel, 19, is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court charged with five counts of attempted murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
On August 25, 2017, Mr Ophel attended a 9am statistics tutorial in the ANU's Copland building before pulling out a baseball bat and attacking his classmates and tutor.
The tutor, who gave evidence with occasional assistance from an interpreter, told the court that she was writing on the whiteboard when she turned to see Mr Ophel coming at her with a baseball bat.
She remembered there was blood everywhere, while another student witness told the court there was "blood splashing" on a screen.
The tutor said Mr Ophel landed a blow to her head while she used a hard yellow notebook to shield herself. She said she did not know why she was holding it but the notebook "saved my life".
She said she called both campus security and the police for help but both had difficulty hearing her.
She said Mr Ophel struck her again in the chest.
The tutor described one male student in the class grabbing Mr Ophel in a bear hug while the attacker struggled to get away.
At one point, the tutor said she picked up a swipe card and opened the door so people could escape, but Mr Ophel pulled her hair to try to stop her.
She said police arrived and took over holding Mr Ophel.
The tutor remembered Mr Ophel yelling, but not what he said, when asked about his yelling in cross-examination by the defence.
The court also heard from a high school friend of Mr Ophel’s who said the accused told him he tried to force a beer bottle down a woman’s throat.
He said Mr Ophel also once told him if he didn’t get a girlfriend in the future he would end up sexually abusing someone instead.
He said Mr Ophel's humour became a "lot darker, a lot sicker" later in high school. He told the court Mr Ophel was very confident in his intellectual ability.
Under cross examination from defence barrister John Purnell SC, the school friend agreed he had once suggested to Mr Ophel in a Facebook chat that he reminded him of US shooter and mass murderer Elliot Rodger.
In reference to Rodger’s belief that suicide was the only way out of injustice, the friend suggested to Mr Ophel that maybe he should try that.
Do you find it an injustice that all girls find you creepy, he asked Mr Ophel in the chat.
Another friend had replied: “So self assured and so self hating.”
The witness agreed that he and Alex and some other friends used to joke about some pretty dark matters.
He said he didn't remember Mr Ophel having negative attitudes to any particular race.
He also said when re-examined by the prosecutor Shane Drumgold that Mr Ophel blurred the lines between joke and reality, and that he sometimes couldn’t tell the difference.
The trial continues.
