I'm not even daring to make an amusing title for this one...

Here on WGW, we see many disgusting stories from humanity's darker side. And with each story we grow a little more cynical, a little more immune to what the world throws up at us. This story, however... I really haven't felt so sick to my stomach in a long time.

Story found here.

Quote :

AN 82-year-old woman's family left her to die in a tiny attic covered in faeces and blood, an inquest was told yesterday. Valerie O'Connor deserved to "die in comfort and with dignity" in the home she shared with her daughter Lynette O'Connor and grandchildren Sean and Shane.

Instead she suffered what a coroner described as the worst case of cruelty to a senior citizen she had ever seen.

Glebe Coroner's Court, in Sydney, was told that Mrs O'Connor was bed-ridden and suffering from an undiagnosed stomach cancer. On January 14, 2008, she was found by her sister, Shirley Barber, in a tin-roof attic on a 44C day, lying in sheets that hadn't been washed for months. She weighed just 35kg.

In papers tendered to the court, police and medical experts detailed Mrs O'Connor's living conditions.

The tiny attic bedroom was covered in faeces and blood. Mrs O'Connor was given a bucket to use as a toilet but was incapable of getting off her bed to use it. She was fed a diet that included Milo, pizza and mudcake, the court was told.

Mrs Barber likened the appearance of her sister to a "concentration camp victim".

The inquest was told that Mrs O'Connor died three days after being admitted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from sepsis and a perforated bowel - side effects from the undiagnosed cancer. Coroner Mary Jerram said: "Thiis one of the worst matters of which I have heard in this court or any other as to an elderly person being uncared for. It's hard to imagine how any caring person could allow her to get into the state she was in without seeking help, medical or community services. All people are entitled to die in comfort and with dignity, she did not. She was sadly neglected."

Mrs O'Connor's daughter Lynette rejected an invitation from Ms Jerram to take the stand and put forward her version of events.

Ms Jerram said she could not pursue legal action against Lynette O'Connor or her partner Michael Gray because it was cancer that had killed Mrs O'Connor. "I must find that Valerie O'Connor died on January 17 at RPA cause of death being sepsis, perforated bowel, stomach cancer," she said. "That is the cause of her death. But I do regard those who were supposed to be caring for her as contributing to the terrible manner of her death."

Outside court, Mrs O'Connor's niece Carrol Barber remembered her as a "caring person".

"She didn't deserve to go like this. No person should have to live their last days in that sort of agony," she said.

I hate this family. I truly and completely hate them. The fact they can get away without being charged due to the cancer is terrible, to say the least.

of course it's austrailia

What kind of person lets their own family get into this state without getting help? I don't think I can find adequate words to express my feelings about this... disgust doesn't cover it.

the asylum wrote:

of course it's austrailia

Sadly, yes, and even England's version of this story doesn't come close to the level of disgust.

*goes and gives her seventy-five-year-old mother an extra hug for being alive*

There really are no words. Well, except for DIE DIE CRUEL ABUSIVE ASSHOLES!

*makes note to do the same for his own mom after he logs out of WGW*

I'm with Carrol Barber. That grandmother deserved a lot better than she got from her so-called "family". [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Everything is Australia is trying to kill you.

Including your family.

My old job has clearly desensitized me. All this does is make me think of the other cases I've seen. I'm not sure that I want to be desensitized to suffering.

This reminds me of a play I saw, the name of which I can't remember, that was about this man who basically tortured his elderly mother and forced her to live in conditions like this for several weeks. In the play this is somewhat justified as she had allowed his father to sexually abuse him and his brother for their entire childhood which caused the brother to eventually kill himself. He was set off when his wife cheated on him and he blamed himself because she couldn't deal with his issues. He blamed those issues on his mother and decided to track her down and found out she was sick and bedridden and living in a small cabin and was only cared for by a nurse that had been hired by a now-dead niece. So the son comes there, sweet-talks the nurse into thinking he's seriously come home to care for his mom and dismisses her with a large bonus. Then he proceeds to torture his mother and make her live in her own filth and their life stories are told in flashback as he reminds her of how she screwed him up. After this has been going on for a bit, the wife shows up, having figured out his location from his credit card bills. The mother starts screaming when she knocks on the door and the wife discovers what he has going on. She tells him he should stop hurting his mother and it's not going to help him. So they decide to rent a boat and just toss her overboard with cinderblocks tied to her arms and legs. From the way she was portrayed you really couldn't feel any sympathy for her, though. Kind of like the victim in that movie Hard Candy.

I'd imagine this woman did nothing to deserve this, but I do wonder if some rage or anger on part of the daughter might've motivated her. I mean, it would be hard for it to just be laziness and apathy at this point, unless the daughter is a hoarder or something like that. I know Josef Fritzl claimed he kept his mother in the attic because he thought it was her fault he was a rapist.

Quote :

Ms Jerram said she could not pursue legal action against Lynette O'Connor or her partner Michael Gray because it was cancer that had killed Mrs O'Connor.

What, not even "failure to help" or something? If you can't get them for killing her, get them for denying her medical help or something. Surely even Australia has laws for that.

Can't even get them on criminal negligence? This seems open and shut for that, at least.

grmblfjx wrote:

Quote :

Ms Jerram said she could not pursue legal action against Lynette O'Connor or her partner Michael Gray because it was cancer that had killed Mrs O'Connor.

What, not even "failure to help" or something? If you can't get them for killing her, get them for denying her medical help or something. Surely even Australia has laws for that.

This is Australia you're talking about


See, Australia is here [x]




















Anything remotely resembling common sense is here [x]