A man forced his estranged wife into a car while holding a knife before driving her halfway to Sydney against her will, prosecutors told a jury on Monday.
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Addressing the court at the opening of the man's trial, prosecutor David Swan said the woman had no wallet, no handbag and no keys, and the door to her home was left wide open with noone inside.
But he said that unknown to the man, the woman still had her mobile phone.
It is alleged that they stopped at a petrol station in Goulburn, and the woman went to the bathroom where she allegedly messaged her new partner and said, "I'm fkn scared," while her estranged husband waited outside.
She allegedly told him her estranged husband was angry about him and that he would not let her go.
The Sydney man, 29, who has not been named to protect the identity of his now ex-wife, is on trial this week in the ACT Supreme Court.
He has pleaded not guilty to one count of forcible confinement.
The couple were together for about five years before separating in 2014, Mr Swan said.
The man moved to Sydney, and the woman moved in with her family in Canberra, he said.
Around mid-2015, the court heard, the woman started a new relationship with a man she had known since school.
The court heard she spoke to her estranged husband intermittently via text.
On November 28, 2015, they messaged each other and discussed their relationship, Mr Swan said.
The next day, he said, the man turned up unannounced twice to the home the woman shared with her mother and said he was taking her to Sydney.
On the first occasion he left without her.
Via text message the woman first agreed to come to Sydney in a day or so, but then told the man she felt pressured and would not go, the court heard.
The man knocked on the door again.
This time woman's new partner was driving nearby with his younger brother and pulled up at the house, the court heard.
It is alleged the estranged husband spoke to the partner at the car while the woman saw him holding a knife behind his back.
The new partner left to take his brother home, and said he was coming back, the court heard.
The estranged husband allegedly told the woman: "Get in the f---ing car, you're going to Sydney," and grabbed her while still holding the knife, it is alleged.
It is further alleged that at one point the man held the knife 10 centimetres from her face and said she was not getting out.
The court heard the man took phone calls on the road, including from the priest at the church where the two married.
The woman's family later called police, and the man pulled into a police station at Bowral, NSW, the court heard.
Mr Swan told the jury the Crown said the man drove the woman halfway up the Hume Highway against her will.
"And not just against her will, but against the law," he said.
The woman was called to give evidence on Monday but said she did not remember the alleged incident.
"I don't remember that day," she said.
The woman, who gave evidence from a remote witness room, also said she could not remember why their marriage broke up.
Questioned by the prosecutor about the two statements she gave to police recounting the alleged incident, the woman said again she could not remember.
The trial continues.
