
Warning: the following contains graphic details of violence.
Jessica Camilleri's mother, Rita, was her carer, her only support, and her only companion.
Last year, she also became her victim.
A NSW Supreme Court jury yesterday convicted Jessica, 27, of manslaughter over the death of her mother, whom she killed in a horrific attack at their St. Clair home in July 2019.
Jessica stabbed the 57-year-old more than 100 times before mutilating her body and carrying part of her remains to a neighbour's front yard, intending to show them "for evidence".
Though charged with murder, the jury agreed with her plea of 'not guilty' based on a partial defence of mental impairment. Instead, after two days of deliberations, they convicted her on the lesser charge.
"So there's nothing that can be done to bring her back?"
As psychiatrist David Greenberg told the court, Jessica is "a very complex mental picture".
She is a woman who lives with multiple, overlapping intellectual and behavioural disorders.
A woman who has a long-standing deficiency in her capacity for self-control.
A woman who experiences fixations that range from numbers, to prank calling strangers and watching horror films.
A woman who had tried multiple medications, to limited effect.
A woman who had been bullied at school and was left behind academically.
A woman who had repeatedly been violent towards women as far back as her primary school days.
The court heard that Jessica idealised men, particularly those whose phone numbers were made of digits she liked — her favourites were two, three and five.
During calls with these men, things turned "ugly" whenever someone tried to end their conversation.
"'I will stab you and cut your head off with a knife'. It always ended like that, it did not matter who she was talking to," one victim said in a statement.