A Canberra woman accused of stabbing her elderly mother in the chest was heard to yell "die" when she returned home to find the woman still alive, prosecutors told a court.
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Mary Ivanisevic, 45, is then alleged to have forced her mother to record a fake confession on her mobile phone to say she stabbed herself as a neighbour tried desperately to render first aid.
Ivanisevic was charged after her mother, then aged 74, was found curled on the floor of her Curtin home, still attached to an oxygen machine and with a deep wound to her chest, shortly after 1pm on December 6, 2015.
Her ACT Supreme Court trial began on Thursday, when jury members heard they would have the option of finding the defendant guilty of attempted murder, or a lesser charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm.
Ivanisevic has pleaded not guilty and maintained her mother inflicted the wound.
In his opening address, prosecutor Anthony Williamson said the nature of the pair's relationship before the incident would be "highly contested".
The Crown would argue it was volatile and Ivanisevic's mother lived in fear of her daughter, while the defence would paint an entirely different picture of a "normal and loving relationship" and the accused as a "diligent and dedicated carer".
Mr Williamson said Ivanisevic demonstrated "extraordinarily bizarre conduct" the day she stabbed her mother in the chest before driving to Curtin petrol station, where she made sure her actions were captured on CCTV, in an effort to create a false alibi.
She drove home to find her mother still alive, allegedly causing her to yell "die" in exasperation, before she encountered a neighbour outside and called for help.
The jury heard the defendant's mother said she'd stabbed herself, but there were inconsistencies in her account.
Defence barrister Kylie Weston-Scheuber said Ivanisevic emphatically denied she was responsible.
She asked the jury to consider what motive there was for the defendant to stab her mother, the elderly woman's health and personal circumstances at the time, and the changing nature of mother-daughter relationships.
From the witness box, the elderly woman's neighbour said she was at home the day of the incident when she heard loud music outside then "a horrible, aggressive voice", which she believed at the time belonged to the accused, say "die".
She denied hearing anything else at the time and said: "One very clear, concise word is what came out of Mary's mouth that day."
The neighbour went outside and saw Ivanisevic, who allegedly told her: "My mum has stabbed herself, call an ambulance."
Once inside, she saw the woman on the ground near a knife and asked the accused where she had been stabbed, but she didn't reply.
Her mother allegedly patted her chest before her neighbour noticed "a gaping hole", the court heard.
The neighbour said it was "disturbing" to then watch as Ivanisevic held her mobile phone to her mother's face, pressed record and said, "Tell them you did it yourself".
The court heard the elderly woman was asked, "Did you do this to yourself?", and she's alleged to have replied: "Yes, I did."
She said Ivanisevic then said "she didn't want to live like this because her husband had just passed away".
The neighbour recalled conversations with the elderly woman in the months before the stabbing, when she allegedly expressed fears for her safety and said Ivanisevic bullied her and was sometimes violent.
Her daughter and husband had tried to turn her oxygen supply off, the woman said, and she believed they were trying to kill her.
Under cross-examination, the neighbour denied Dr Weston-Scheuber's suggestion those conversations never happened.
The trial, before Justice Michael Elkaim, continues.
