Anthony Sherna told a Supreme Court jury his de facto partner Susanne Wild cut him off from contact with friends and family, was “unpredictable” and would constantly put him down.

“She just used to call me a weak little bastard,” he said.

The jury has heard Mr Sherna strangled Ms Wild with a dressing gown cord in February last year after she woke his dog and then buried her body in their back yard in Melbourne’s southwest.
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Mr Sherna said if people knocked on their front door the couple had to pretend they were not home. His partner, who had a number of aliases, also would not let him give out their address to his family. […] Mr Sherna said Ms Wild, 53, would call him at work several times a day about trivial things and did not let him socialise with his work mates. She also accused him of having affairs. “I dreaded going home. I just wanted to stay at work as long as I could,” he said. Mr Sherna said his wife would pick fights with neighbours and abuse them. At one house where they lived, she would not let him use the toilet, telling him to use the amenities at work or the local shopping centre instead. They slept in separate rooms, she refused to have photos taken with him and never wanted to go on holidays or out for dinner.