A 25-YEAR-old from the Nicosia suburb of Latsia gave himself up to the police following a deadly attack on his sister by hitting her over the head more than 50 times with a laptop in the early hours of yesterday.
The 25-year-old, who called the police at 7:30am, said that he got into an argument with his sister over a laptop a few hours earlier, at around 4:30am.
A police news report said the woman had apparently been kicked and punched and suffered repeated blows to the head and body with the laptop.
“I killed my sister,” the 25-year-old allegedly told Latsia police who got to the scene to find the dead 28-year-old on a sofa, Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said.
State broadcaster CyBC said she was found in a pool of blood.
The Cyprus Mail was told that the man went to his mother’s bedroom and told her what he had done.
“I don’t believe you,” she said. He then took three pictures of his sister on the sofa and showed his mother.
State Pathologist Eleni Antoniou told the Cyprus Mail the family had been receiving assistance from social services.
The family, (the mother, daughter and son), were under psychiatric observation, sources indicated. But they said that the son had stopped seeing his psychiatrist and had also stopped taking his medication for six months prior to the incident.
A witness at the scene described the household as “an unkempt, dirty mess,” adding that signs of neglect were obvious.
Police inspector Kypros Michaelides confirmed to journalists that the 25-year-old called a police station and reported the incident.
Antoniou, who went to the scene, told journalists that the 28-year-old had “very many wounds on her head”.
Asked if there were any signs of a fight, Antoniou told the Cyprus Mail that there were only small scratches on the girl’s hands, but that she had received over 50 wounds to her head.
“There was no real struggle as the girl suffered from partial paralysis, due to a congenital condition that limited movement in her lower limbs. She couldn’t walk particularly well to try to escape,” Antoniou said.
Obviously distraught, Antoniou said that the incident took place in “the entrance hall where there was a small living space with two large couches where they were sitting together.”
Nicosia Police chief Kypros Michaelides said that the siblings’ quadriplegic mother was in her bed at the time.
“Obviously (the mother) has realised what has happened but you realise we are at an early stage of investigations and can’t say more,” Nicosia police chief Kypros Michaelides said.
The 25-year-old was arrested by the police and taken to police headquarters for questioning. Nicosia District Court remanded him later yesterday for eight days.
“It’s a family tragedy,” Michaelides said.
The post mortem takes place today.
