Grandmother ‘hacked to death’ by grandson
Written by admin on August 1, 2024
A young man has been jailed for five years after hacking his grandmother to death during a cannabis-induced psychosis.
Hayden Leigh Kidd, 22, returned before the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday after pleading guilty to manslaughter over the death of Shirley Kidd, 67, two years ago.
Mrs Kidd was found dead in the garage of her Darley home, about 60km northwest of Melbourne, on May 28, 2022, by her husband, Robin, after he was woken by their seven-year-old grandchild.
“Hayden did it, he hurt mama,” the young boy said.
The court was told Kidd, then 20, had woken up psychotic after smoking a small amount of cannabis and mistakenly believed his cousin, asleep with their grandmother, was himself.
He believed his grandmother was his abusive stepfather and grabbed the boy before fleeing out of the room, the court was told.
Justice Michael Croucher told the court that Mrs Kidd was concerned for the boy as she followed Kidd into the garage.
There, Kidd released the boy before swinging a mattock into his grandmother’s head, killing her instantly.
“This (sentencing) is no easy task, for this is an unusual case,” Justice Croucher said.
“On the one hand the killing itself was gruesome and objectively grave; after all an innocent person was hacked to death in her own home.”
But Justice Croucher said Kidd’s moral culpability was very low given the crime was committed in the “grips of a florid psychosis”.
He noted Kidd had suffered extreme abuse almost daily at the hands of his stepfather from the age of two.
“His mind was so disordered he believed his grandmother was his sadistic stepfather,” he said.
“It’s plain his awareness of what he was doing at the time was severely compromised.”
Justice Croucher noted that but Kidd’s drug-induced psychosis, he would have had a defence of not guilty by mental impairment.
Kidd was jailed for five years with a non-parole period of 2½ years.
Given he has spent two years and two months since the offending, he will be eligible for release later this year.
