‘We can’t help you’: Perth woman says police refused to help before alleged attempted murder

A woman who says she was abused, stalked, harassed and then almost killed by her ex-partner claims she begged police for help in the days leading up to the incident, but was told there was nothing they could do.

The woman, who cannot be identified, gave evidence in a Supreme Court of WA trial this week against her former partner Mihael Vrhovsek, 29, after he was charged with attempted murder following accusations he strangled her repeatedly until she fell unconscious outside their Rivervale apartment in February 2024.

Prosecutors told the court Vrhovsek mounted a campaign of abuse at the woman for five months following their separation that included changing his number 18 times after she blocked each one so he could repeatedly call and abuse her.

They also claim Vrhovsek tried to make contact with the woman 234 times via text messages and phone calls over a three-day period in the lead up to the alleged incident that culminated with him “lying in wait” in his car outside their apartment block for eight hours.

“Killed yourself already?“, “This is your last warning”, “You’re a spectacular piece of s—“, ”Go f— yourself, politely” and “I would have killed myself already but the hatred towards you is keeping me alive” were just some of the text messages shown to the jury when the woman gave evidence on Wednesday during the trial.

She told the court the couple had been in an on-again, off-again “volatile” relationship since 2019 when the pair met in Queensland before moving to WA for mining work.

After the relationship ended in September 2023, the woman gave evidence that she left Vrhovsek’s Rivervale apartment and took her things to look for a place of her own, but struggled to find a suitable property before eventually leasing an apartment six floors above his.

She claims she tried to avoid any interactions with Vrhovsek after she moved out, but said he would relentlessly call, text and email her despite the fact she never responded.

By January 2024 she said the communication “got darker” with one email reading, “thanks for another sleepless night, I much prefer pretending you are dead in that apartment”. He also allegedly texted her “good night attention seeking s—” and later “you’re dead to me”.

By the end of February, the woman said she felt too scared to return to her apartment after she was told by a neighbour that Vrhovsek had parked in her car space and slept in his car “like a predatory animal waiting for me”.

The woman told the jury she was “freaked out”, had called the police and explained he was in her basement.

“I told them, I’ll come and let you in, but I’m not coming down there,” she said.

“I said he’s been waiting there for me to come back. I was genuinely thinking he’s going to kill me.”

The woman then testified that she told the operator to get police to call her when they got to the security gate so she could let them in, but did not receive a call.

Instead, the woman claims she went into a police station and asked for help.

“I said, please look at my phone and all the messages. He’s waiting in my car space and I told them that I was scared he was going to kill me,” she said.

“The officer went off and made some calls or something and when he came back he said, it’s a private property, we’ve got no access. He said, ‘we can’t help you’.

“I walked out to my car and I just broke down.

“I thought, what the f— do I do? No one is helping.”

Hours later she went back to the apartment briefly to grab a change of clothing with a friend, but when she ran into Vrhovsek she immediately called triple-zero.

“I saw him walk out of the doors at me – he was looking down, targeted, coming at me,” she told the jury.

The woman’s triple-zero call was played to the jury on Wednesday where she can be heard yelling “get the f— away from me, get the f— away from me” before the call goes quiet.

It’s in those moments that she claims Vrhovsek put his hands around her throat and lifted her off the ground while her friend and a bystander pulled him off twice. The alleged victim said he then ran and lunged at her again, choking her into unconsciousness.

The incident was all caught on CCTV cameras and played to the jury, but Vrhovsek denies he was trying to kill her and on Friday gave evidence that he did not remember the alleged assault.

He told prosecutor Jehna Winter that it was a combination of lack of sleep, injecting a human growth hormone and the fact that he could not get hold of a testosterone cream that led him to attack the woman, which included dragging her down the driveway by her neck.

He told the jury he was just trying to get her attention with the repeated calls and text messages.

Vrhovsek also claimed he suffered from undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome that meant he struggled to read social cues.

“You lunged at [the woman], picked her up with both hands and choked her to unconsciousness, but you weren’t intending to kill her, is that what you’re saying?” Winter asked during cross-examination on Friday.

“It just happened. I wasn’t being myself at all. The medication and lack of sleep changed me,” Vrhovsek said.

“What about when you dragged her down the driveway by her neck – no thoughts there?” Winter asked.

“You fought your way back to her to choke her on the ground, what was going through your mind then?”

“I don’t remember doing it,” Vrhovsek responded.

The trial continues.