Hanny Papanicolaou: Cleaner wants lesser charge in Marjorie Walsh fatal stabbing case
A Sydney cleaner accused of stabbing and bashing her 92-year-old client Marjorie Walsh in the elderly woman’s Ashbury home has told a court she wants her murder charge downgraded.
Police & Courts
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A Sydney house cleaner charged with murder over the death of her 92-year-old client wants to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, a court has been told.
Hanny Papanicolaou, 37, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after allegedly stabbing and bashing Marjorie Welsh inside the elderly woman’s Ashbury home in January last year.
Prosecutors in the Local Court had alleged Papanicolaou, an Indonesian mother from Roselands, had been gambling for hours at Canterbury Leagues Club before going to Ms Welsh’s residence.
After the alleged attack Ms Welsh said “I will never be the same” and died in hospital a few weeks later.
In court, Papanicolaou was asked if she was going to plead guilty to Ms Welsh’s murder but said she wanted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
“Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter,” she told the court dressed in prison greens from Mary Wade Correctional Centre in Lidcombe.
However, Crown prosecutor John Bowers said he was against Papanicolaou being sentenced on the lesser charge.
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“The plea of guilty to the alternative count is not accepted,” he said.
“The Crown will need to call a fairly large (number) of available witnesses because representations made by Papanicolaou to the psychiatrist that’s prepared a report … are challenged by the Crown, they’re matters of facts in relation to her version of events at the time of the incident leading to the death.”
Defence barristers for Papanicolaou told the court there was “substantial impairment issues”, meaning they will focus in on her state of mind at the time of the attack during the trial.
Justice Robert Hulme QC set down a trial date for May next year and said it would likely last three weeks.
“This was a matter that was delayed because they needed expert reports … the Crown indicates it will not accept a plea offer,” the judge said.