Gehlen claimed that Ms Colomines had stabbed herself four times during a struggle, which included a fatal injury that penetrated her heart and a 22cm-long knife wound across her neck.
The prosecution had described Gehlen’s account that Ms Colomines had stabbed herself to death after they fought about “another man” as “ridiculous” and “insulting” to the jury. Mr Clarke said the row between Gehlen and Ms Colomines lasted 11 minutes and that this could be “an insufficient amount of time for provocation to dissipate”, which did not bar this line of defence possibly being put to a jury.
Mr Clarke said Gehlen had claimed that Ms Colomines asked for space, then produced a knife and cut herself, telling him: “If you want to damage me or destroy me I am going to destroy you even worse.” Presiding judge Mr Justice George Birmingham said that there was no evidence of any loss of control by Mr Gehlen and that therefore any jury would have had to “dream up a defence” itself in relation to provocation.
Shane Costelloe SC, for the State, said Gehlen had denied stabbing his wife and added that it was “frankly, entirely contradictory that this was an accident, or an accident and self-harm” for the defence to now say there was an element of provocation.