Pringle pleads not guilty to murder as jury hears of 60 injuries

An Ipswich man accused of fatally beating his partner has pleaded not guilty to her murder in Brisbane's Supreme Court. Michael Kurt Pringle is on trial over the death of Krystle Monks, 19, who was taken to hospital in February 2023 and died the next day after her family withdrew life support.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told the jury on Monday the death was caused by a protracted and violent assault at Pringle's Bundamba home. He said Monks sustained blows to the head, and jurors would hear of traumatic brain injury they cannot see. More than 60 external injuries will be put before the court, Crane said, describing her as peppered with bruising and abrasions. Those marks, he told the jury, are the markers of the violence perpetrated upon Krystle.

The jury heard Pringle made three Google searches before calling emergency services, including one asking whether people can faint, after telling a Triple Zero operator and later police that his partner had been drinking and injured herself. Crane said the court will be played evidence in which Pringle attributes her death to misadventure, claiming Monks jumped on the bed, fell off and hit her head on the dresser.

Text messages sent earlier that night, in which the pair argued about photographs of Monks, will also be shown, according to the prosecution. Crane said the messages reveal jealousy and a motive to be violent, and that within half an hour Pringle called her a liar, a dog, a rat, scum and worse. He described it as a relationship of animosity, telling jurors those words will recur because they were used repeatedly over the preceding months.

The jury heard Monks texted her mother that same night saying she wanted to come home, after her mother told her to reach out if she did not feel safe. Witnesses set to testify include a woman who did not know the couple but allegedly saw Pringle punching Monks while driving his car, and reported it to police. Officers who later attended his home heard him deny assaulting her, the jury heard, though he subsequently messaged Monks saying someone had apparently seen him hitting her.

Co-workers of Monks and a neighbour of Pringle are also expected to give evidence aimed at establishing repeated physical violence during the couple's short relationship. The trial is expected to run for two weeks.