A cleaner accused of beating and stabbing to death her frail and elderly client before rummaging through her house for money has been accused of faking her memory loss of the bloody attack.
Hanny Papanicolaou, 38, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court where she has pleaded not guilty to murdering Marjorie Welsh inside the 92-year-old woman’s Ashbury home in January 2019.
Ms Papanicolaou has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and admitted to the brutal assault but claims she has no memory of the incident and “woke up” covered in blood with the knife in her hands.
Ms Welsh was found lying face down in a pool of blood with stab wounds to her abdomen and pieces of crockery in her skull before dying six weeks later.
Crown prosecutor Chris Taylor accused Ms Papanicolaou of repeatedly lying about her alleged “blackout”.
Over 1½ days in the witness box, Ms Papanicolaou told the jury that she had been suffering mental health issues in the lead-up to Ms Welsh’s January 2 attack.
She claimed that she was suffering depression and anxiety due to troubles in her marriage and detailed her troubled youth in her native Indonesia.
“You’re pretending that this mental health situation was far worse than it possibly could have been,” Mr Taylor said.
“No,” Ms Papanicolaou replied.
“You’re in fact faking that you can’t remember the incident with Mrs Welsh,” Mr Taylor said.
“I’m not faking,” she said.
After she was arrested at Illawong on the day of the attack, Ms Papanicolaou initially told police that Ms Welsh – who walked with the aid of a walking stick – attacked her.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed Ms Papanicolaou playing the pokies at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL before driving to Ms Welsh’s house on the morning of January 2.
The court was told that Ms Papanicolaou had lost $430 gambling and was left with $4 in one of her bank accounts.
Ms Papanicolaou also knew that Ms Welsh had previously sold her Box Hill property for $8m.
She was not scheduled to clean Ms Welsh’s house that day but insisted she was there to “work”.
She also drove her car to Peace Park, which backed onto Ms Welsh’s Holden St home, and jumped the fence to enter the house via the back door.
After the assault, Ms Papanicolaou stole Ms Welsh’s cordless telephone and the knife, which she wrapped in a white cloth beforxjmtzywe disposing of them in a bin in Canterbury.
The prosecution also alleges that she pulled the power cord from an emergency alarm system, which Ms Welsh had activated, and rummaged through her client’s bedroom.
Ms Papanicolaou previously described Ms Welsh as her “best friend” and Mr Taylor questioned why she took the phone instead of calling for help.
He also highlighted that she had drafted several text messages to family members instead of calling emergency services.
Ms Papanicolaou said she was in a state of “panic” and because the alarm had been activated she knew that medical help was coming.
“You left her to die,” Mr Taylor said.
“I know the help going to be coming,” Ms Papanicolaou said.
The trial continues.
