A woman accused of killing her sister contacted a friend and told her: “I’ve killed my sister”, the jury has heard.
Jane Forey, 61, denies a charge that she assaulted her sister Susan Hendrickson at their shared home in Roybridge by pushing or striking her, causing her to fall to the ground and strike her head, and leaving her so severely injured that she died.
She has lodged a special defence of self-defence.
Susan Hendrickson, known as Sue, died at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on January 13 2022.
On the first day of the culpable homicide trial at the High Court in Inverness, the jury heard how Ms Hendrickson had lived in Australia before moving in with Forey, her partner and their mother in Glenspean Park.
Witness Norma MacDonald told the court her friend and neighbour Forey had been “very worried about Sue living in a bedsit in Australia and being on the drink” prior to the move back to Scotland.
But she said that once the sisters were back under the same roof issues emerged.
Facebook messages
In one Facebook message exchange between the friends, shown to the jury in court, Forey wrote: “She is the only person who can cause me to lose my temper, when I do I lash out, it is such a horrible side of me she brings out in me.”
The messages also described how Forey claimed to have caught her sister sitting on her partner’s lap.
She wrote: “Afraid she got a slap, then all started again this morning she was stupid enough to fly at me, not proud of myself.”
In evidence led by advocate depute Isabella Ennis, witness Christine Dignan, who was also friendly with the siblings, told how Forey said to her that her sister had been “violently sick” after banging her head during an altercation but said she had not taken her to the hospital until the following day.
‘She pushed her back’
Ms Dignan said: “She said she had pushed her and she pushed her back.”
She also told the court how she had received Facetime calls from Forey, who had travelled to Glasgow to be with her sister’s hospital bedside, saying: “I’ve killed my sister, I’ve killed my sister.”
Asked about that conversation, she said: “I think she felt guilty because she didn’t take her to hospital the day before when she was sick.”
Forey faces two further charges of assault – both of which she denies.
One alleges that she assaulted her sister at their home between November 20 2021 and January 10 2022 by repeatedly acting in an aggressive and intimidating manner towards her, repeatedly striking her on the head and body and brandishing a knife at her.
The other is a charge of assaulting her partner at the same address by repeatedly pushing, punching and kicking him on the head and body to his injury. A special defence of self-defence has been lodged.
The trial, before Judge Pasportnikov, continues.
