Original Blog Entry: Woman, 92, is oldest to stand trial for murder

truesee — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 20:35:25 GMT

Woman, 92, is oldest to stand trial for murder

At 92, Clara Tang is accused of bludgeoning, suffocating and stabbing her 98-year-old husband to death. Now she has become the oldest woman in Australia to be committed to stand trial for murder.

After almost 70 years of marriage, Tang - suffering dementia - allegedly killed Tang Ching Yung in their plush sixth-floor unit in the Connaught apartment complex overlooking Sydney's Hyde Park on March 12, 2010.

Documents tendered by police detail how the couple survived the Japanese invasion of China and the Maoist cultural revolution before moving from Shanghai to Sydney 30 years ago.

Tang has entered a plea of not guilty to murder on the grounds of mental illness. A tiny, frail woman, she faced Downing Centre Local Court last week, when magistrate Janet Wahlquist ordered her to stand trial in the Supreme Court on a date to be fixed.

LINK TO PHOTOS:

http://www.dailychilli.com/news/10685-woman-92-is-oldest-to-stand-trial-for-murder

Detectives allege Tang confessed to killing her wealthy husband in a struggle. Her husband could not walk without a cane. Police initially opposed bail, citing ''the level of violence used and for the protection of the community'', but she Tang was granted continuing bail under strict supervision in a nursing home, pending her trial.

In the week leading up to the death, police allege, Tang had taken to phoning her granddaughter saying: ''They are scheming against me; they are poisoning me; they are trying to kill me.''

When arrested, she was almost totally soaked in blood, police said. Her husband had been stabbed twice in the stomach and his head had been bludgeoned.

In a record of interview, she had confessed to killing him after he refused to talk to her.

Police allege: ''The accused states that [he] and her started to push each other started to hit each other. The accused said: 'You hit me. I hit you.'

''The accused states that she said: 'I'm getting old. If you want to kill me let's die together.' The accused states she grabbed an object similar to a jar and struck [him] as hard as she could to the back of the head.''

The beating allegedly went on for more than an hour. ''The accused states that she put her fingers under the deceased's nose and could still feel him breathing, so she hit him again [with a stick].''

She had thrown objects on to a neighbour's balcony, telling them there was a young man she had never seen before and he was trying to kill her

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