Schizophrenic woman in murder case thought mother was asleep
A schizophrenia patient who killed her mother in a fight at their home told police she thought the 83-year-old woman had just fallen asleep, a court heard on Wednesday.
Leung Hin-yi, 51, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, said she had had become furious because her mother was disobedient, the Court of First Instance was told.
Justice Peter Line adjourned sentence to October 11 pending a probation officer’s report to confirm the record of Leung’s previous admissions to a psychiatric ward.
Prosecutor Michael Arthur said the tragedy was discovered in the evening of June 20 last year (2011) when Leung sought help from a security guard at her flat in Ping Shek Estate, Ngau Tau Kok, saying her 86 year old father was sick and could not move.
When fire services officers arrived they found Leung’s 86-yar-old father lying alive on the floor.
Her injured mother was lying on her back with the right side of her forehead covered with a piece of gauze. She was later confirmed dead.
Post –mortem examinations showed she had suffered internal injuries and cuts and bruises in her head, neck, upper and lower limbs. The pattern and severity of the injuries showed that she was likely to have been assaulted and struggling shortly before her death. Some injuries were believed to have caused by a bloodstained laundry fork found in their flat.
During several police interviews, Leung had admitted she had a dispute with her mother in the morning and had fought with her the day before.
Leung claimed she had not meant to stab her mother with the fork but was only trying to scare her.
When her mother became motionless she thought she had just fallen asleep.
The daughter claimed she had bandaged her mother a few times and had wiped away blood inside the flat.
