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The bizarre reason a student viciously beat up a grandmother on the steps of her Greek Orthodox church – leaving her with horrific injuries
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Penelope Katsavos was beaten up by Amrick Roy outside a church in Melbourne
- The grandmother of six was left with a brain haemorrhage, a broken wrist and a broken hip
- Roy was on a night out to ‘cheer up’ after his own grandmother passed away
- Ms Katsavos said she forgave Roy as he pleaded guilty in County Court on Friday
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A college student who randomly beat up a grandmother on the steps of her Greek Orthodox church was on a night out to “cheer up” after his own grandmother’s death, a court has heard.
Amrick Roy, 27, pleaded guilty Friday in Victoria’s County Court to the March 2021 ‘vicious’ attack on Penelope Katsavos, 79, in Melbourne’s South Yarra.
Ms Katsavos was opening the doors of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Constantine and Helen, where she had volunteered for 30 years, at about 6 a.m. when she was attacked by Roy in an unprovoked attack.
He hit her on the head, knocked her to the ground and kicked her repeatedly before fleeing with her shopping cart that he drove through South Yarra before dumping it.
Roy spun around grandmother’s shopping cart after smashing outside a Greek church in Melbourne (pictured)
Penelope Katsavos, 78, was abandoned on the steps of the church (pictured) where she was found 30 minutes later by a street sweeper who then called paramedics
Penelope Katsavos’s face was covered in massive purple bruises, from her right eye to her chin (pictured left after the attack and right in hospital)
Mrs. Katsavos was bleeding for 30 minutes before she was found by a street sweeper who called ambulances. She suffered two brain haemorrhages, a broken hip and a broken wrist in the attack.
Roy’s lawyer told the court on Friday that his client’s grandmother had recently died and a friend convinced him to go to Revolver Upstairs nightclub in Prahran on the night of March 12 to “cheer him up,” the paper reports. The Herald Sun.
After a night of heavy drinking, he attacked some people in the street as he left the club before attacking the grandmother of six.
Police have released footage of Roy wandering the street as part of their investigation (pictured)
Judge John Carmody said Ms Katsavos had recently celebrated her 78th birthday when “this young fellow full of grog and maybe other things hit her on the head and knocked her down.”
Ms Katsavos said in her victim statement that she had lasting effects and that she was no longer able to properly care for her husband with dementia who had been transferred to a nursing home.
“I miss my husband(and) I miss my independence,” she said.
Penelope Katsavos and her husband Thomas who suffers from dementia (photo)
The grandmother of six flashed a brave smile as she recovered in hospital last year (pictured)
But despite her ordeal, Mrs. Katsavos said she had forgiven Roy.
“My only hope is that … you will learn how to become a better person.”
Forensic psychologist Nina Zimmerman testified that Roy has schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication weeks before the attack, but he did not believe he met the criteria for a defense against intellectual disability.
He will be convicted on October 21.