The jury
heard more details about the abuse
the Lam sisters said they endured while living with their mother when court began its second week of a five-week murder trial Monday.
Chau Kanh Lam and her sister, Hue Ai Lam, face first-degree murder charges in relation to the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, in her home in the early hours of Oct. 31, 2022.
On Monday, Crown attorneys played a video recording of an interview between Chau, retired detective Daniel Brennan and Han Hoang, a Vietnamese interpreter with the Immigrant Women’s Services of Ottawa. The interview took place at the Elgin Street jail block hours after the Lam sisters were arrested as suspects in relation to their mother’s death.
Throughout the hour-long interview, Chau told Brennan through the interpreter that Kieu would constantly verbally and physically
abuse the two sisters
.
Chau said Hue, who has Parkinson’s disease, would also be belittled by her mother because she could not work due to her disability.
“The old lady (Chau’s mother) was constantly cussing us. She kept asking us why the older sister has a disease and why she cannot work. She said it’s shameful that (Hue) cannot work, and it make people laugh at her,” Chau told Brennan through the Vietnamese interpreter in the video recording.
“Since the sister got sick, she keeps cussing constantly. She beats my sister.”
Chau also told the detective that Kieu would beat them everywhere on their body and forbid them from leaving the house or buying anything without her permission.
The two sisters would cry regularly and constantly as a result of the abuse, she said, and added that the abuse had been happening for “a very long time.” Both sisters had been living with their mother since the family immigrated to Canada in 1992.
Chau said the two sisters planned on killing her the week before the fatal incident after being beaten and cussed at all day by their mother. While Chau said during the recorded interview she didn’t remember how they decided to kill her, she did say they started thinking of killing their mother that week.
Chau also said both sisters agreed to kill their mother, and the plan was to
hit Kieu on the head with a hammer
to knock her unconscious, then strangle her to kill her.
“Last Monday (Oct. 24, 2022), my mother was cussing a lot and she beat (my sister). Because we were holding it in for a long time, we were so mad, so we killed her,” Chau said in Vietnamese.
The recording ended with Brennan telling Chau that she was being charged with first-degree murder, the most serious crime in Canada. He also informed her that she would be taken to court from there and that a lawyer would be provided for her.
Chau understood her rights, says detective
Brennan testified in court Monday that he was satisfied that Chau understood her rights after she was arrested.
He said he told Chau she had the right to not say anything to him because anything she said to him would be used as evidence in court.
He also testified that he told her she had the right to retain and speak to a lawyer.
A Vietnamese interpreter was present the entire time he was reading out her rights because he wanted to make sure she understood, and an interview wouldn’t have happened if an interpreter wasn’t present, Brennan added.
“I got the greatest interview of all time and she confessed to many, many things,” Brennan said on the stand.
Court is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday at 10 a.m.
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