A cleaner who brutally stabbed and beat her 92-year-old client in a robbery gone wrong has been found guilty of murder.
A NSW Supreme Court jury on Wednesdayxjmtzyw afternoon found Hanny Papanicolaou guilty of murder after deliberating for less than a day.
Papanicolaou, 38, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, arguing she had suffered an abnormality of the mind and experienced a blackout during the bloody attack.
The jury rejected her version of events that she “woke up” suddenly covered in blood and with the knife in her hands inside Ms Welsh’s Ashbury home in January 2019.
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.
The crown prosecution argued that Ms Welsh was the victim of a robbery-gone-wrong.
The court heard that Ms Papanicolaou was left with just a few dollars in her bank account having spent the morning of January 2 losing $430 on the pokies at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL.
Ms Papanicolaou told the jury that she was aware that Ms Welsh had sold her Box Hill home for $8 million.
Ms Welsh was shocked to find Ms Papanicolaou inside her home before she was attacked with her own walking sticks and ceramic pottery.
Ms Papanicolaou also stabbed her elderly client six times in the abdomen with a knife taken from the cutlery drawer.
Ms Welsh managed to activate a medical alert necklace and raise the alarm, with neighbours and emergency services rushing to her aid.
She was taken to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery but died of her injuries six weeks later.
Ms Welsh gave two statements to police before her death in which she identified Ms Papanicolaou as her attacker.
The court heard during the trial that Ms Welsh cried out: “Why Hanny, why” during the attack.
Ms Papanicolaou drove her car to Peace Park, which backed onto Ms Welsh’s home in Sydney’s inner west and jumped the fence to enter her house through a back door.
A witness reported seeing Ms Papanicolaou jumping the back fence following the attack.
After the assault, Ms Papanicolaou also took a cordless telephone and the knife, which she wrapped in a white cloth, before disposing of them in a bin at 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.
Over one-and-a-half days in the witness box, Ms Papanicolaou told the jury that she had been suffering mental health issues in the lead up to the attack on Ms Welsh.
She claimed that she was suffering depression and anxiety due to troubles in her marriage.
She told the court that she blacked out and could not remember inflicting Ms Papanicolaou’s injuries.
“I just opened my eyes and I was looking at Marge,” Ms Papanicolaou said.
“What’s in front of the fridge with a lot of blood … In my head is just my son. I want to hold my son … The blood is on my hands. I was holding the knife.”
However, crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor accused her of lying about being unable to remember the incident.
“You’re in fact faking that you can’t remember the incident with Mrs Welsh,” Mr Taylor said.
Papanicolaou will be sentenced at a later date.
