As Neville Kitchen kneeled on his wife's chest with a pillow ready to smother her, all the high-flying senior accounting partner could think of was her daughter.
"You can't hate me so much that you want to do this to her," she told him.
![Doctor Neville Kitchen pleaded guilty to threatening to kill his wife.](/web/20160716180338im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/6/r/a/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gq6qpw.png/1468568147020.jpg)
"I don't hate you, I love you so much I can't live without you - but I have to see this through now because you will get me locked up," he replied, according to an agreed prosecution summary of the case.
But his murderous intent was broken, and he burst into tears. He got off her chest, and put down the pillow.
![The couple's former Toorak home was sold this year](/web/20160716180338im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/6/r/y/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gq6qpw.png/1468568147020.jpg)
She played along, fearful of provoking him further, and asked him to go put the kettle on, according to the summary read to court at Kitchen's trial.
He pleaded guilty to threatening to kill her, despite shaking his head as the prosecution summary was read out at the trial, and was given a two-year community corrections order after County Court Judge Mark Dean acknowledged his history of mental illness.
Kitchen and his wife, who Fairfax has chosen not to name, were Toorak royalty. She is a senior partner at an accounting firm, and he was a medical doctor.
They owned a three-bathroom mansion sitting high above Toorak Valley, bought for more than $4 million in 2010. The house has a 1200-bottle wine cellar, home theatre, gym, lift and a four-car basement garage.
![The kitchenm of the couple's former Toorak home.](/web/20160716180338im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/6/r/y/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gq6qpw.png/1468568147020.jpg)
But in October 2015 their 31-year-marriage hit serious turbulence. Mrs Kitchen moved out; Neville stayed at the family home, but his mental health - which he had struggled with all his adult life - fell apart.
On Sunday December 6 she was staying at the couple's beach house near Blairgowrie, where she had gone for some privacy.
At 3.26am she was woken by light flooding into the bedroom from an opened door. Neville stood in the doorway, holding a pillow in his hands.
"Die, you bitch" he said as he walked toward where she lay. Neville lay on top of her and started to press the pillow down on her face.
But she struggled, and both rolled over and fell off the side of the bed. He managed to get on top of her and kept pressing the pillow into her face, forcing her to reach around to try to gouge his face.
They struggled into the living room, where he finally got on top of her, pinning her down. At this stage, according to the prosecution summary, she thought she was about to die.
This is when she reminded him about their daughter, and he stopped, and broke down.
Still terrified of provoking him, Neville's wife stayed with the man, sitting on the back deck and talking into the early hours of the morning. In the darkness with no one around, she was terrified that he would chase and catch her if she tried to flee.
By this stage Kitchen's feelings appeared to have switched. He even offered his wife a knife, telling her: "I want you to feel safe, so just in case you're not why don't you have this?" according to Kitchen's barrister.
They eventually went onto the beach to take in the morning sunrise, before heading to a nearby cafe for breakfast. They drove together to another location and she dropped him off, before heading to the police station to report the matter.
When police arrested Kitchen they found him in a depressed and suicidal state, with a police doctor ruling he was unfit to be interviewed. At a later court hearing he was bailed to reside at a psychiatric hospital.
Kitchen pleaded guilty to one count of threat to kill and one count of intentionally causing injury. He was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, after Judge Dean found he had significant mental health issues.
Kitchen's barrister submitted his client had longstanding dysfunctional personality traits, on the basis of a medical report before the court. He also suffered from bipolar-like symptoms, but had no criminal history before the attack.
His psychological illness was in part due to a traumatic upbringing in orphanages. In the past he had been treated with electro-convulsive therapy.
He has not practiced medicine for a decade due to ill mental health, which had deteriorated as he became older and through which his wife had been trying to support him.
His daughter had seen her father hysterical, irrational, laughing and crying in the month before the attack. Since Kitchen was released on bail she's been seeing him regularly, and their relationship was "good", Kitchen's barrister said.