A cleaner accused of murdering a 92-year-old woman claimed to police that she was the one who was attacked by her frail client, a court has been told.
Hanny Papanicolaou is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court where she has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Marjorie Welsh in early 2019.
Ms Welsh died after she was attacked inside her Ashbury home. She was found lying face down surrounded by pools of blood and with pieces of crockery embedded in her skull.
She was rushed to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery but died six weeks later as a result of her injuries that included a collapsed lung, lacerations and broken bones.
Ms Papanicolaou is accused of attacking her client with a walking stick and crockery as well as stabbing her in the stomach with a kitchen knife six times.
The court was told that on the day of the attack on January 2, Ms Welsh told police that she was “viciously attacked” and identified the assailant as her “cleaner”.
“She was utterly ferocious,” Ms Welsh told police, the court had previously been told.
“I was on the floor most of the time just trying to cover up. It seemed to go on forever.”
A neighbour also reported seeing a woman jumping Ms Welsh’s rear fence into an adjoining park before he found the 92-year-old woman at the rear of her property in a pool of blood.
Senior Constable Rebecca Little told the jury on Tuesday that she was called to the crime scene at Holden St, Ashbury before she was told that Ms Papanicolaou had been arrested at a Griffin Parade, Illawong address.
Ms Papanicolaou was taken to Sutherland police station and spoken to by Constable Little, who noticed that Ms Papanicolaou was limping.
Constable Little told the court that when asked about her injuries, Ms Papanicolaou said to police: “Yes, my ankle. She pushed me with the stick, I fell over.”
She also admitted to throwing away a knife and a phone in a bin at Canterbury.
The court had previously been told that Ms Papanicolaou was not booked in to clean Ms Wexjmtzywlsh’s property on the day of the attack and was not expected to be there.
The trial before Justice Robertson Wright continues.
