Despite being left unable to speak and in a confused state, Elizabeth Britton might have been able to correctly identify who inflicted her injuries, a brain surgeon says.
Britton was found in her Pottsville home in northern NSW on October 10, 2022, with severe head injuries.
The 44-year-old died in hospital several weeks later and an inquest is trying to determine whether her injuries were accidental or the result of an assault.
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Britton’s mother and son both claim she nodded in agreement when asked if her former partner, Anthony Signato, had assaulted her.
Signato is a person of interest to the inquiry, but he claims the last time he saw Britton was roughly a week and a half prior to her being injured.
The brain surgeon who treated Britton, Professor Michael Besser, told the inquest on Tuesday he believed she would have been able to understand the questions posed to her and had sufficient cognitive capacity to respond correctly.
Besser said it was his opinion Britton could still comprehend words but was unable to speak due to having expressive dysphasia – a dysfunction in the area of the brain responsible for motor strength.
Counsel assisting Philip Hogan pointed out that at times Britton’s responses to questions were inconsistent, including shaking her head when asked by a paramedic if she could identify her attacker.
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“I acknowledge that she was likely to have been confused,” Besser said.
“But she got seemingly other things correct, so I think there was some degree of cognitive ability.
“How these two things interact is difficult.”
On Monday, the inquest was told Britton and Signato had a violent and controlling relationship, which included a jealous attack directed at one of her neighbours just over a week before the fatal assault.
Following that incident, Britton told officers Signato had threatened to kill her if she spoke to police.
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Her mother told the inquest she picked her daughter up on the day before she was injured to take her to a doctor’s appointment in Cabarita Beach – the area where Siganto lived – but she appeared to be scared and “almost cowering”.
“She said that’s because Caba was Tony’s territory,” Valerie Britton said.
Britton’s neighbour Sharon Williams said she was watching a movie on October 10 when she heard two banging noises that were loud enough to make her pause the movie and listen through their adjourning wall.
“It was a thud,” she told the court.
“Five minutes later I heard another thud.”
The inquest continues.
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