Axe attacker sentenced to four years' jail

A young transgender woman who used an axe to attack people in a Sydney convenience store has been jailed for at least four-and-a-half years.

Evie Amati has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Evie Amati has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. Source: Supplied

Fuelled by a cocktail of prescribed and illicit drugs causing a brief psychosis Evie Amati swung an axe at three innocent victims wanting to kill them.

She hit two of them inside a Sydney inner west 7-Eleven on January 7, 2017, with such force she sliced through her first victim Ben Rimmer's face and bone before splitting the base of Sharon Hacker's skull into multiple parts.

Her last victim pedestrian Shane Redwood deflected the attacks with his backpack outside the Enmore store until it was knocked from his grasp and he ran.

Judge Mark Williams sentenced the now 26-year-old to nine years' jail with a non-parole period of four years and six months at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Friday.

"The likelihood of death in each case was very high," the judge told the court.

He described the CCTV footage of the incident as "'graphic and shocking".

"Both Mr Rimmer and Ms Hacker were struck when they were not looking, rendering them more vulnerable to serious harm," the judge said.

Although Ms Hacker fall to the ground was cushioned by her dreadlocks, she still experiences '"shooting pain" through her arm, the court heard.

The judge said, as Mr Rimmer lay on the ground following the attack, he thought of his pregnant wife who he feared he may never see again.

Judge Williams detailed the events leading up to the attack, including Amati going on a Tinder date, drinking alcohol, smoking cannabis and consuming illicit drug MDA.

She became upset after comments from her date's housemate about how she was "brave" caused her to feel identified as transgender.

When Amati put her leg against her date, she "recoiled not, you know, not as like a natural kind readjustment as if she was burned, as if she'd touched a leper or someone that was infected", the judge said from Amati's previous statement.

After leaving, Amati later messaged her date: "One day I'm going to kill a lot of people... For hating something so innocent".

Half an hour after they stopped messaging, Amati armed herself with the axe and an 18cm knife before heading to the 7/11.

The court heard a doctor believes Amati was "intoxicated with a cocktail of prescribed and illicit substances at the time of the offending and she had a brief drug-induced psychosis on top of her depressive illness".

Her barrister Charles Waterstreet told the court about the deterioration of her life after gender reassignment surgery in Thailand due to issues with incorrectly prescribed feminising hormones which aggravated her depression.

However, the defence of mental illness was previously rejected by a jury.

Amati has since described her behaviour as "monstrous" and cannot remember the attack apart from hallucinations, the court heard.

A jury last year found her guilty of three charges - wounding with intent to murder, attempting to wound with intent to murder, and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to murder.

Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 22 4636


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Published 18 January 2019 4:22pm
Updated 18 January 2019 9:27pm


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