Rita Camilleri, 57, was protective of her troubled daughter, Jessica (right).
Rita Camilleri, 57, was protective of her troubled daughter, Jessica (right).
A Sydney court has heard a woman decapitated by her daughter paid a medium to rid her daughter of a "demon". Warning: Graphic content
WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC
Before she was allegedly beheaded by her daughter, Rita Camilleri had been so desperate she had paid a medium $2500 to "get the demon out" of Jessica Camilleri.
The trial of Jessica, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering her mother by way of mental illness, heard that her mother Rita had taken her to a female "spirit communicator".
The medium, a "she wolf" on Queen St, a major thoroughfare in the western Sydney suburb of St Mary's, had quoted Rita Camilleri a sum of nearly $5000 to get rid of Jessica's demon, the court heard.
Jessica Camilleri, 26, who police allege used several knives to decapitate her mother Rita Camilleri, 57, in St Clair in 2019. Photo / Facebook
"She paid $2500 but never got any service, I believe she was desperate for anything to help," a friend of Rita and her other daughter, Kristy Torrisi, told the court.
Jessica's trial heard earlier that the accused enjoyed horror movies including the Jeepers Creepers film franchise based on a flesh-eating demonic creature, known as the "creeper", who devours people to replace its own body parts.
Gruesome scenes of the brutal beheading by a young woman of her mother have been heard in court on the first day of the trial of Jessica Camilleri for alleged murder.
The decapitated head of Rita Camilleri, 57, was found on the footpath near her home. Other body parts were found on the kitchen floor, Crown Prosecutor Tony McCarthy told the court.
Rita Camilleri's body was found at her home in St Clair in western Sydney in July 2019. Source / Supplied
The trial by jury, before Justice Helen Wilson, heard that then 25-year-old Jessica Camilleri stabbed her mother more than 100 times, later saying: "I kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her, I took off her head."
Jessica, now aged 27, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her mother at their western Sydney home in St Clair on July 21 last year.
It is not contested that Jessica Camilleri did physically carry out the acts upon her mother, but it is the defence case that psychiatric illness caused a substantial impairment upon her mind at the time.
McCarthy said that Jessica Camilleri "had a lengthy history of assaulting people" and her mother Rita had become "overly protective and defensive" in her role as carer of her daughter.
Jessica had harassed or threatened family members, as well as random people over the phone including threats to cut off people's heads with a knife, he said.
The accused was also a fan of horror movies, with her favourite film being The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the court heard.
"A feature of these movies was killing people violently and dismembering their bodies," McCarthy said.
After the attack on her mother, he said that Jessica had called triple-0 and claimed she was acting "in self-defence".
Jessica claimed her mother had grabbed her by the hair inside the house and tried to stab her first.
"You'll hear the accused say, 'I just kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her, I took off her head'," McCarthy told the jury.
The court heard multiple knives were used in the attack and some had broken off before Rita Camilleri's head was found out the front of a neighbour's house.
Jessica Camilleri was found on the street outside her home covered in blood and holding a bottle of water when police arrived.
"She immediately told them she had killed her mother and pointed out the head that was on the footpath," McCarthy said.
In a subsequent police interview, the court heard, Camilleri alleged there had been an argument and then she had stabbed her mother an estimated 85 times.
"The accused said she wanted to give the deceased a taste of her own medicine," he said.
Defence counsel Nathan Steel asked the jury to put emotion and sympathy to one side and decide the case based on the evidence.
"Due to the effects of her mental conditions, she had an impaired capacity at the time of the events," he said.
The court heard evidence from Jessica's sister who agreed that the accused had been diagnosed with disorders including dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and had been bullied by other students at school.
When the girls' father was no longer living with the family, Jessica's behaviour worsened because "Dad had control over her and discipline" and that was no longer there.
