It was not a good break-up.

Caleb Wynn and Stacey Anderson's nine-year relationship ended on December 18, 2010, the night Anderson stabbed her sleeping partner in the neck and face with a screwdriver and then went after him with a claw hammer in each hand.

Anderson appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday charged with attempted murder.

That she attacked him is not in doubt - she said Wynn raped her the night they broke up. It is what her intention was in attacking him that will be decided by the jury.

Wynn told the court the break-up and the care of their two young children had been decided amicably.

On December 17, the day before they had agreed Wynn would move out of their Henderson home, the pair had a few drinks and talked about ''the good times'' they had shared.

They went to bed together and had consensual sex three times, going outside for cigarettes between times, he said.

It was in bed, when he started mentioning the new person he had met, that ''Stacey's mood started to change''.

''The last time I came back to bed I noticed some tools under the bed,'' he said.

There were two hammers, a screwdriver, and a ''big black knife'' that Anderson had under her pillow.

''I didn't say anything about them. I wondered what they were doing there though,'' Wynn said, adding he then fell asleep.

The next thing he remembered was being woken up.

''I noticed I was being stabbed in the back of the head,'' he told the court.

Wynn said he thought he had been stabbed through the jugular from the amount of blood.

A second stab wound in the face went through his cheek and ''bounced off his teeth'', he said.

He ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

''I knew she had a fair few tools she could do damage to me with.''

Anderson beat on the door with the hammers, he said.

Shortly afterwards, he made it to the kitchen where Anderson confronted him with the hammers in each hand.

He said he swept her good leg out (Anderson wears a prosthetic leg) and took the hammers off her and threw them outside.

On the driveway, Anderson came at him again with the hammers and threw them at the car as he drove away, he said.

Crown prosecutor June Jelas said when Anderson was interviewed by police she told them all that was going through her mind was ''I'm going to kill you, I want you dead''.

She later told police: ''That's the truth. I won't take it back and I'll never apologise.''

Jelas said it was accepted that Wynn had a protection order that he not harm Anderson and that he was arrested for breaching his bail for the incident.

He was also charged with assault following their tussle.

Defence lawyer John Gerard said Anderson was the victim and Wynn, ''a terrible husband'', was the assailant.

''His death isn't what she wanted in the slightest,'' he said.

If the jury did not accept that she lacked murderous intent, they would rely on the defence of justifiable self-defence, he said.

The trial before Justice Toogood is estimated to run for a week.