Cleaner admits to killing 92-year-old client
A Sydney cleaner has admitted to killing her 92-year-old client in a frenzied attack after "blacking out". The young woman claims she's only guilty of manslaughter because she can't remember a thing.
Hanny Papanicolaou said she doesn't recall bashing Marjorie Welsh with her own walking stick after arriving at her Ashbury home, in Sydney's Inner West, on a day she was not rostered to clean in January 2019.
She also said she has no memory of stabbing Mrs Welsh with a kitchen knife or smashing her over the head with crockery. Mrs Welsh died from her injuries six weeks after she was attacked.
Ms Papanicolaou told a NSW Supreme Court jury on Wednesday that all she remembers is waking up in a pool of blood and seeing Mrs Welsh's body on the ground after she was "woken up" by an alarm.
"I wake up surrounding by blood, I wake up surrounding by knife,' she said in the witness box.
"Marj was in front of the fridge with a lot of blood… I just grab the cloth and I just run.
"I just want to see my son… I was in shock I didn't know what was happening."
When asked why she attacked her client she said, "I don't know .. every day I asking myself … I don't know."
Her statements of memory loss were at odds with what she told police in an interview following her arrest.
During a three-hour interview, she told officers she acted in self-defence after Mrs Welsh accused her of stealing $50 and pulled a knife on her.
"I try to get knife … I was kicking her … and I then I just say, 'give it to me give it to me'," Ms Papanicolaou said in an interview room at Sutherland police station.
"She tried to get up and she hit her head into the fridge," she said before stating Mrs Welsh fell on broken crockery.
The 38-year-old admitted she gambled until the early hours of January 2, 2019 at Canterbury-Hurlstone RSL before driving to Mrs Welsh's Ashbury home. It's the Crown case she went to Mrs Welsh's Holden Street home to steal money – thinking she was away - but attacked her when after realising she was home.
She admitted to carrying out the attack but denied rummaging through the house for cash, despite leaving a blood smear on the inside of Mrs Welsh's cupboard.
Under cross examination Crown prosecutor Chris Taylor asked: "You killed Marjorie Welsh didn't you?"
"Yes, I plead guilty for manslaughter," Ms Papanicolaou replied.
"You beat Mrs Welsh with her own walking stick?" Mr Taylor asked.
"I don't know," she replied.
"You're pretending that you've forgotten that you beat and stabbed Mrs Welsh. You're pretending, aren't you?" he asked.
"No," she said.
Despite partially recalling the actions of the attack, she told the court more than 100 times "I don't know" and "I don't remember" in relation to questions over the brutal assault.
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