Woman thanks ‘heroic’ good Samaritans who saved her life as ex-boyfriend convicted over Brisbane axe attack

A woman who survived a hatchet attack in a Brisbane car park has thanked the good Samaritans who saved her life, after her ex-boyfriend was found guilty of attempted murder.

"They are the reason I am alive today," Maria Buci said outside Brisbane supreme court on Thursday.

Cameron Turgay Bardak, a former security guard, ambushed Buci in the car park in Brisbane's CBD after she finished work at a law firm in July 2020.

He attacked his former girlfriend with a hatchet and choked her before members of the public came to her aid.

Bardak had pleaded guilty to an alternate charge of causing grievous bodily harm. However, crown prosecutor Chris Cook did not accept it, telling the jury that Bardak had formed the idea that "if I can't have her, nobody will".

Buci had told the jury she was walking through the car park and spotted Bardak hiding next to her vehicle and he told her to "get in the car".

"He said 'I'm going to kill you' and that's when I saw the axe," she told the jury.