Murder trial: Mother would 'constantly' abuse us, Lam sister claimed
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.
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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.
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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.
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Throughout the hour-long interview, Chau told Brennan through the interpreter that Kieu would constantly verbally and physically abuse the two sisters.
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Chau said Hue, who has Parkinson's disease, would also be belittled by her mother because she could not work due to her disability.
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'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.'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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