Three children are to give evidence against their parents in a trial over the alleged neglect death of an elderly woman at her family’s home. Police allege the woman, aged in her 80s, did not get the care she needed from her son and his wife in the nine months before she died in October 2013. Ambulance paramedics were called to the family’s Melbourne house after the woman died, and alerted police when they were appalled by the sight of her in a soiled nappy on a rotten mattress, with food scraps strewn around and a stench through the home. A medical examination later found the woman’s 34-kilogram body had begun to decompose, that her limbs, chest and forehead were covered either in bruises or scabs, and that parts of her body were discoloured, according to court documents. The son, 50, and his wife, 45, were last week committed to stand trial on charges of reckless conduct endangering life and reckless conduct endangering serious injury. Both pleaded not guilty. The couple and the elderly woman cannot be named so as to protect the identities of the couple’s children. The man and wife appeared before the County Court on Friday so a judge could set a date for their trial. They will stand trial in May next year. The couple had their bail extended. The court heard three of their children – two of them teenagers and one younger – were listed as prosecution witnesses. Court documents say one of the couple’s children found her grandmother dead. Judge Lisa Hannan said she was concerned for the children but was told authorities were monitoring the case.
