A woman murdered the father of her one-year-old daughter by plunging a knife through a door and into his neck, a court heard yesterday.

Andrina Tamara Smith, 26, is alleged to have deliberately killed Edward Allan Dill in the early hours of October 16, 2006, after an argument during which, a jury was told yesterday, he gave her a "slap". She denies the charge.

Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney, opening the murder trial at Supreme Court, said the stabbing happened when Smith arrived home at the Devonshire apartment she shared with her grandmother and other family members after a night out with a girlfriend.

Mr. Mahoney said 36-year-old Mr. Dill was in a "visiting, common law relationship" with Smith and was at the Cedar Park apartment when she got there.

"Eventually, herself and Dill had an argument during which he gave her a slap. It is the prosecution's contention that after he hit her, the accused went to the kitchen, armed herself with a knife and proceeded back to the room where Mr. Dill was."

Mr. Mahoney told the jury he would ask them to infer from circumstantial evidence that Mr. Dill was behind a door trying to block her from entering the room he was in.

"When she was on the outer section of the door she used the knife and plunged it through the door," he said. "It's our contention that during that attempt to get at Dill through the door, the knife eventually hit home and caught Dill in the region of his neck."

Mr. Mahoney said Mr. Dill died as a result of the injury sustained from the knife which Smith, of Granaway Road, Southampton, plunged through the door.

Earlier, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves told potential jurors they would hear allegations of a "history of beatings" during the three-week trial. "You may hear these allegations being made on behalf of the defendant, that the deceased beat her," he said.

The prosecution's first witness, Detective Con. Keriin Thorne, a forensic investigator, took to the stand yesterday afternoon and showed the jury a series of photographs he took at the crime scene in the early hours of October 16.

He pointed out a black handled knife in one and a knife block with an empty slot in another. One picture showed damage to a door which was covered, the detective said, in what appeared to be blood.

Other pictures showed what he said appeared to be the bloody footprint of a sneaker, blood on walls, on the ground, on stairs and on a chair and motorcycle outside the premises.

Defence attorney Charles Richardson, cross-examining the policeman, asked him if he knew whether any of his colleagues went into the "bloody crime scene" before him. Det. Con. Thorne said he was not sure.

Mr. Richardson suggested to the officer that it would have been impossible for him not to step on some of the "red staining" and asked why "forensic stepping plates" were not used to preserve the scene.

Det. Con. Thorne said there was a limited supply of the plates and he did not have any in his vehicle. He added that he was wearing a crime scene suit, which he had earlier explained was to avoid contaminating the evidence.

Mr. Richardson asked if it would be difficult for him to draw an accurate picture of what happened if items had been moved or were not where they had been at the time of the crime. Det. Con. Thorne replied: "Yes."

The trial continues today.