...'I hit her because she made me mad.'
...is this a good enough reason to kill your wife?
Long before she was bludgeoned to
death by her husband of 20 years, Margaret Tannous (pictured) told
Sydney police he had threatened to kill her if she ever left him
Long
before she was bludgeoned to death by her husband of 20 years, Margaret
Tannous told Sydney police he had threatened to kill her if she ever
left him.
And
one evening in 2014, George Tannous made good on his deadly promise, in
what was the culmination of years of mounting delusion, rage and
'morbid jealousy'.
In
the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Acting Justice Jane Mathews found
Tannous not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.
On Thursday George Tannous was found
not guilty of murder by reasons of mental illness, even though he had
admitted to killing his wife
A forensic psychiatrist testified during a brief judge-alone trial that the 58-year-old appeared to have limited insight into what he had done and his behavior was consistent with the symptoms of a psychotic illness.
Tannous
was described in court as a controlling man who had developed delusions
his wife was flirting with other men in front of him and had repeatedly
been unfaithful.
Yet all the evidence - according to Mrs Tannous's friends, family, and the slain woman herself - suggested her 'infidelities' were figments of her husband's delusions.
Court
documents reveal Tannous called for an ambulance after beating his wife
bloody in their Bankstown home on February 17, 2014, telling
paramedics: 'I hit her because she made me mad.'
Court documents reveal Tannous called
for an ambulance after beating his wife (pictured) bloody in their
Bankstown home on February 17, 2014, telling paramedics: 'I hit her
because she made me mad'
An agreed statement of facts also reveals Mrs Tannous had told police her husband was stalking her in 2012, and he had 'threatened to kill her if she terminated the relationship'.
She
took steps to take out an apprehended domestic violence order against
him, but withdrew her application soon after making it. A trial separation that year was also short-lived.
The statement tells how tensions mounted in early 2014, when Mrs Tannous went to Lebanon alone.
While
she was overseas, Tannous confronted a man who sublet part of the
office where Mrs Tannous ran a successful migration business, telling
him he should move out and asking him: 'If you were married would you be
happy if your wife was sharing an office with a man?'
On Thursday, Ms Tannous's niece
Jessica Karam (pictured) was at the NSW Supreme Court and and described
her late aunt as 'a beautiful person'
'No one has the right to take anyone's life away - that's no one's job,' Ms Karam told reporters
On
February 17, shortly after Mrs Tannous returned to Australia, Joseph
Aboutanios told her about the conversation with her husband. Hours
later, she was dead.
Prosecutors
believe Mrs Tannous told her husband she wanted a divorce and he beat
her so viciously with a broomstick that it snapped.
Mrs Tannous died in hospital shortly before midnight.
Justice Mathews ordered Tannous be detained indefinitely in a mental health facility.
Morbid
jealousy, also known as delusional jealousy, is a psychological
disorder leaving a person obsessed with thoughts their spouse is
cheating on them without having proof.
Outside court, Jessica Karam described her late aunt as 'a beautiful person'.
'No one has the right to take anyone's life away - that's no one's job,' she told reporters.
'What
I would like from today is for people to see and understand that
violence against women is wrong, and it won't be tolerated in this
country.
'I think we've still got a long way to go as a nation.'
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