Shopkeeper Voula Delios found in a pool of blood, Supreme Court in Hobart told
WHEN one of Voula Delios’s regular customers stopped by her shop on July 23 two years ago, the man noticed a pool of blood and then saw Mrs Delios lying on the floor, a jury in Hobart has heard.
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ONE of Voula Delios’s regular customers stopped by her shop on July 23 two years ago to show her a photograph of his daughter.
When the 57-year-old man walked into the North Hobart Grocer he noticed a pool of blood and then saw Mrs Delios lying on the floor, Crown prosecutor Jane Ansell told a Supreme Court jury in Hobart yesterday.
DAY 1 OF TRIAL: COURT TOLD OF VICIOUS STABBING
Mrs Ansell said the man then went next door to the Raincheck Lounge and asked for help.
Daryl Royston Wayne Cook, 36, of Claremont, has pleaded not guilty, by reason of insanity, to murdering Mrs Delios, 68.
On the second day of his trial yesterday, the jury heard James Kingston, who was having a coffee at Raincheck, and a waitress rushed to help Mrs Delios, followed by Mr Kingston’s friend Lucy McGregor.
Ms McGregor said when she entered the North Hobart Grocer, Mr Kingston was trying to resuscitate Mrs Delios.
“She was just very still I think I thought that maybe she was deceased because she was so still, and I was struck by the amount of blood,” Ms McGregor said.
The court heard paramedics arrived and took over from Mr Kingston but Mrs Delios could not be revived.
The court heard a doctor who saw two ambulances arrive also went to help.
Mrs Delios was stabbed multiple times to her neck and body.
Detective Senior Constable Nathan Robinson said police arrested Mr Cook, who was at his aunt’s house, about 11pm that night. Const Robinson said when he and other detectives entered the Claremont house, Mr Cook stood up quickly and approached them.
“I withdrew my firearm and pointed it at him and instructed him to get on the ground,” he said.
Const Robinson said Mr Cook followed police officers’ instructions.
Detective Sergeant Kim Norton said he found a small kitchen knife with a black handle in Mr Cook’s pocket.
“[It] had what appeared to be blood on it,” Sgt Norton said.
“I asked if that was the knife he’d stabbed the lady with earlier in the day, he said it was.”
Mr Cook was interviewed by police about an hour later.
“I located a heathen and I executed it,” he told Const Robinson and Detective Senior Sergeant Adam Stanwix during the interview, which was played to the jury.
Mr Cook told the officers he was Roman Catholic and that he prayed while he was stabbing Mrs Delios. “I prayed at the time that God would help me so he might have helped me, I didn’t have much strength of my own,” he said.
“God has been talking to me and telling me some stuff ... he’s shown me the path to kill that heathen.”
Mr Cook said he intended to kill Mrs Delios.
He said he bought the knife from Target for $2 “to defend myself and also to attack heathens”.
Mr Cook said his intention was to kill a “heathen” and steal some cash. He told police he took the cash register drawer from the shop, took about $300 from it and hid the drawer under a car in Newdegate St.
When asked how he managed to get the cash drawer open, Mr Cook said: “I just banged it around a bit and I prayed and then it opened.”
He said he spent most of the money on drugs and cigarettes.
When asked about his medical history, Mr Cook said he had a crippled back caused by heathens attacking him and that he had been prescribed antipsychotic drugs.
The defence does not dispute Mrs Delios died as a result of Mr Cook’s actions but says he was so mentally unwell at the time he should not be held criminally responsible.
In his opening address to the jury on Friday, Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates, SC, said the jury could be satisfied Mr Cook committed the act as charged but was insane at the time.
Only a jury can decide someone is not guilty by reason of insanity.
Yesterday the jury also heard evidence from people who saw Mr Cook behaving strangely in North Hobart before Mrs Delios was stabbed.
Kim Pearce, who regularly visited the North Hobart shopping strip on Saturday mornings, was one of the last people to see Mrs Delios alive.
Mr Pearce said he had known Mrs Delios and had shopped at the North Hobart Grocer for almost 20 years.
On July 23, 2016, he went to the store and waited to be served. The court heard Mrs Delios was serving a man who fitted Mr Cook’s description.
The court earlier heard Cook had been into the shop twice that day before he killed Mrs Delios.
Mr Pearce said the man had asked Mrs Delios to light his cigarette for him, but she refused. The man left the store.
“We had a little conversation as we always did,” Mr Pearce said.
“She said he’d put his head in earlier or come in earlier and wanted to know the time ... neither of us had ever seen this person in the neighbourhood before.”
The trial, before Justice Gregory Geason, continues tomorrow.
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