Ottilia Aranyi lay dead on the kitchen floor of her inner south home for almost seven hours before her son called an ambulance, police allege.
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And a court document alleges her son Gabor Laszlo Aranyi told the paramedics he was going to call police but called them instead because “I strangled her”.
The 33-year-old man was yesterday committed to stand trial for murder in the ACT Supreme Court.
Aranyi’s legal team has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental impairment after a psychiatric report questioned his criminal responsibility.
Details of the Crown’s case are included in a statement of facts tendered for the purposes of today’s committal proceedings in the ACT Magistrates Court.
The defendant’s legal team has so far not made any concessions about the facts in the case.
Police allege Aranyi called an ambulance to their Yarralumla home about 8.49pm on Monday, April 2, reporting an unconscious patient.
The document claims when the paramedics arrived they were met at the door by Aranyi, who showed them an elderly woman lying on the floor of the kitchen.
The 75-year-old woman was lying face up with her head resting on a pillow.
It is alleged Aranyi told them the two had a fight about 3pm, he went to his room and he hadn’t been out since.
Police allege the accused man said he was going to call police but decided to call the ambulance first – when asked why he allegedly replied, “I strangled her”.
In a subsequent interview police Aranyi allegedly said the argument began at 2pm when his mother started nagging him about missing a mental health appointment.
It is alleged she pushed him several times, annoying him, and he put her hands around her throat and tripped her over.
Police allege he then strangled her until she was unconscious and left her on the floor.
In another interview the following day police say Aranyi told them he though the deceased was the Devil, and God had previously told him to kill her.
But he allegedly stressed that was irrelevant, he should not have killed her and she was a “nice lady” who gave him a good life.
In August, defence lawyers and the prosecution received a report canvassing Aranyi's fitness to plead, and whether a mental impairment defence was available.
Aranyi, through his barrister James Sabharwal, has since entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
The defence has conceded there was a "prima facie' case against their client, allowing Magistrate Bernadette Boss to commit the matter to trial in the territory's higher court.
At trial, the Crown will still have to prove the facts of the killing before a jury beyond reasonable doubt.
But the jury is also expected to hear evidence about Aranyi's mental state.
In the territory's Criminal Code, a mental impairment includes "senility, intellectual disability, mental illness, brain damage, and severe personality disorder".
The law states a person with a mental impairment is not criminally responsible for an event if the impairment meant they could not control their actions, did not realise their actions were wrong, or did not know the "nature and quality of their conduct".
Aranyi declined to call evidence at the committal hearing yesterday, as was his right.
He remains in custody, and the case will go before the Supreme Court for a directions hearing next month.