Indonesian house cleaner Hanny Papanicolaou, aged 35, did not appear in Burwood Court today to face her charges of allegedly stabbing and beating 92-year-old Marjorie Welsh on January 2.
Horrific details of the case emerged in January when the matter was first brought to trial.
Mrs Welsh had said following the incident that she would never be the same in what had been described as a “frenzied” attack in the elderly woman’s Ashbury home.
Police prosecutor Ernest Chan formally added murder to the original charges of attempted murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The cleaner allegedly used Mrs Welsh’s walking stick, a knife and kitchen crockery to attack the elderly woman, leaving her with a punctured lung, nicked bowel, multiple facial fractures, back and head lacerations and wounds to the torso.
Ms Papanicolaou’s solicitor James Trevallion had told the court last month that his client, employed by Ms Welsh for 12 months prior to the incident, had acted in self-defence after the 92-year-old had armed herself with a knife.
