Ex-Employee Pleads Guilty to Attempted Murder Charge Australia

Joan Mary Walsh plead guilty to attempted murder charges when she stabbed security guard Karen Emmerzael at the Commonwealth Bank processing center, in West Melbourne, on December 27, 2004. The 46-year-old mother of three, had previously worked at the center in a data entry position but left some time in 2000 after suffering depression after the death of her eldest son in a car accident. The day of the assault, Walsh told the security guard her car had broken down, asked to use a phone and went to the toilet. She then returned with a long kitchen knife and started stabbing the 28-year-old security guard before she was able to escape. According to the prosecution, there was no obvious motive and very little explanation for the "vicious" and "unprovoked" attack. Walsh had reportedly wrote a letter of apology to the security guard, stating that "anger and hatred had built up inside me" and that she was lonely and missing her son.