Jury returns verdict for woman accused of murdering her patched partner in self-defence

Warning: This story contains graphic details that may disturb some people.

A jury has found Margaret Green guilty of manslaughter, not murder, for fatally stabbing her partner Selwyn Robson in the neck.

Sent away to deliberate last Monday, the jury came back with a majority verdict at the end of the week: guilty on one charge of manslaughter.

Green’s lawyer told the High Court over the past few weeks that she stabbed the patched Black Power member in self-defence because he was “hurting her”.

But the Crown argued that while there were “some occasions” Robson was violent, Green had taken a gamble with her partner’s life by stabbing him, which amounted to murder.

What was not in dispute was that on May 6 of last year, Green stabbed Robson with a kitchen knife during an argument in his Manurewa, South Auckland sleepout.

He died at the scene and an autopsy revealed the knife went more than 9cm into his neck, damaging multiple blood vessels and causing major blood loss.

Green’s defence called a forensic psychologist who had assessed the woman over multiple sessions, and intimate partner violence expert Rachel Smith, who was there to speak on the topic on the whole, not the specifics of the case, to the High Court at Auckland this month.

Smith said it was a common myth that victims of domestic violence were passive and did not resist, using the “outdated” term of “battered women’s syndrome” as an example.

Victims will use force to stop force against them, she said.

She also explained that victims often react to the threat of violence, particularly if they have been beaten before.

They respond to “everything their partner’s ever done to them” and threats “made credible” by what’s happened before, she said.

Despite the efforts of paramedics, Selwyn Robson died at the scene. Photo / Facebook

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Jacqueline Short s said Green suffered early emotional and physical abuse, then a serious assault as a teenager.

Suffering complex post-traumatic stress disorder from that point, Green was subjected to an “aggressive coercive act” when she tried to leave a violent partner in 2017, Short said.

She was then left with a traumatic brain injury after an assault by another intimate partner the following year, the psychiatrist explained.

Short said before Robson’s death, Green was “hyper-sensitised” to potential threats, particularly in reaction to real or perceived violence.

The woman was projecting a tough self-image, prone to angry outbursts, which she sometimes could not remember, or numbness and “shutting down”, the psychiatrist said.

‘Namesake, I have f***ed up’

On the second day of the trial, the court heard from the person Green went to after Robson died: longtime family friend Sharon Manaia.

Manaia told the court she had been close friends with Green’s late mother since she was 15.

“How long have you known Ms Green?” Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi asked.

“Since she was in the belly,” Manaia answered.

Manaia called Green “namesake” because her first name is one of the Green’s seven middle names. She had, at times, looked after the woman growing up.

Around the time of the stabbing, Manaia said she rarely heard from Green.

She said about 11am on May 6, 2025, she saw Green walking down her Manurewa, South Auckland, driveway and into her shed.

“‘Namesake, I have f***ed up’,” Manaia recalled Green saying.

Green did not say what she meant by that but Manaia’s response was something along the lines of “stop, I don’t want to hear it”.

She said she told Green to take a shower because there was blood on her face that looked like freckles.

“Does Ms Green have freckles?” Al-Janabi asked Manaia.

“No,” she responded.

Manaia said Green shaken and flustered. After she showered, the two sat down and had a cup of tea for about an hour.

They did not talk about what happened, she said.

Then, Manaia said she went out to run some errands and when she came back Green was gone.

The court heard from other witnesses during the trial that Green went to visit other whānau and, bit by bit, confessed some of what she had done.

The following day Manaia said Green returned to her home “withdrawn” and “just didn’t want to talk”.

Acting on advice given to her by police who had visited her home the night before, Manaia told Green she should hand herself in.

Green agreed and they dropped a child off at school before heading to the police station.

How did Green seem, Al-Janabi asked.

“Lost,” Manaia replied. “Lost for words, lost for emotions, just lost.”

She continued to look lost at the police station, she said.

“Still not her normal self, still quiet.”

She said she waved to Green as she was taken away by police.

Green is set to be sentenced in September.

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.