To view original article click here
news.com.au
Candace Sutton
September 1, 20172:24 pm
EVIE Amati, charged with the Enmore 7-Eleven attempted murders was “wielding the axe purposefully”, a judge has said
EVIE Amati could be seen “wielding the axe” in a “purposeful” manner in her alleged attempted murder of two suburban 7-Eleven customers, a court has heard.
But Ms Amati may have been trying to carry out her own suicide because she thought she was going to be shot by police, according to a psychiatric report.
If found guilty, Ms Amati, who the court was told is currently being held in a transgender wing of Cessnock maximum security prison, faces up to 25 years in prison.
Justice Stephen Campbell told the NSW Supreme Court on Friday that Ms Amati was on a five drug “cocktail” but still knew what she was doing on the night of the alleged attack.
He said she was “a transgender female on relatively high doses of a cocktail of feminising medication” and four other drugs on January 7.
The evidence was heard in a bail application on Friday by Ms Amati, who appeared by audio visual link from prison.
Wearing a prison green T-shirt and shorts and sporting extensive tattoos on her arms and legs, Ms Amati smiled at a female friend who was in the courtroom as support.
Evie Amati appeared by AV from the Cessnock maximum security prison but failed to be granted bail.Source:Facebook
Evie Amati, the woman who police allege carried out a terrifying Sydney axe attack captured on CCTV in a suburban 7-Eleven, had her case mentioned in court Friday. Picture: news.com.auSource:News Corp Australia
2.19am, January 7: A woman strolls into Enmore 7-Eleven carrying a long-handled axe in her hand while customer Sharon Hacker (right) is buying milk. Picture: news.com.auSource:news.com.au
A judge said Evie Amati propped the axe against a flower pot after walking onto the street after the alleged axe attack. Picture: Gordon McComiskieSource:News Corp Australia
Ms Amati, who has waived her right to a committal hearing, is likely to stay in the Cessnock prison wing until she goes to trial next year.
Justice Campbell said Ms Amati, 25, had been on “high doses of Zoloft” for depression, plus on the night “vodka, two cannabis joints … and an amphetamine pill thinking it was Ecstasy”.
Despite the drug cocktail, Justice Campbell told the court the accused seemed “neither intoxicated nor cognitively impaired when wielding the axe.
“Her movements seem purposeful and she did not dissemble. Nor is there gross discoordination.”
However he also said he “can’t conclude anything of her cognition” nor rule out intoxication, by watching video of the alleged attack.
The alleged attack was caught on terrifying CCTV footage, exclusively obtained by news.com.au following the incident.
Sharon Hacker on the ground at the 7-Eleven after her attacker wields the axe in the early hours of January 7.Source:News Corp Australia.
The video shows a woman swing a long-handled axe down on Sharon Hacker and Benjamin Rimmer, who were buying milk and a pie at around 2.20am at the convenience store.
Justice Campbell said that after “viciously” and “brutally” attacking two customers, Ms Amati left in Enmore 7-Eleven in Sydney’s inner west and then allegedly attacked a third person.
“He was able to fend off … two blows with his backpack.”
Ms Amati then moved “into someone’s garden, propping the axe against a flower pot” and lay down “apparently in a state of deep psychosis”.
Justice Campbell was delivering his judgment in a bail application by Ms Amati, which he refused saying her “condition is capable of making her dangerous to the public and herself”.
He said Ms Amati had bought the long-handled axe used in the attack last December and had used it “to break up an old couch”.
Justice Campbell said Ms Amati, originally from Western Australia, had a history of depression and “had attempted suicide three times”.
He said the accused’s lawyers plan to plead under the Mental Health Act at her trial for attempted murder.
The mental illness defence was “capable of availability”, but Justice Campbell had considered four separate psychiatric evaluations of Ms Amati.
Forensic psychiatrist for the Crown, Dr Michael Diamond, had concluded the accused was carrying out “a homicidal fantasy” based on a “chronic melancholy”.
Dr Diamond had concluded the alleged attempted murders took place because of “a borderline personality disorder and as a result of a devastating rejection by an attractive potential female partner”.
Following this, the court heard, Dr Diamond said the accused had carried out “homicidal ideation in devastating fashion”, but he said it was not a product of mental illness.
Three psychiatrists for Ms Amati disagreed.
Dr Robert Hampshire had concluded Ms Amati had suffered “drug-induced psychosis and severe suicidal ideation that she was going to be shot by police”.
But he said she did not have a “psychopathic personality”.
Professor David Greenburn said the alleged attacks had been made in a drug-induced psychotic state.
Dr Olaf Nielsen said Ms Amati had a depressive illness which was “in remission and recovery” under jail-enforced abstinence from alcohol and drugs.
Ms Amati’s defence counsel Charles Waterstreet had proposed she be released on a $500,000 surety to a Western Sydney house where she would wear an electronic monitoring anklet.
An alternative was to place her in a psychiatric clinic and be subject to twice daily police reporting and once daily urine analysis.
Ms Amati faces charges include causing wounding or grievous bodily harm with intent to murder Sharon Hacker and Benjamin Rimmer.
In formally refusing Ms Amati bail, Justice Campbell said that even under stringent release conditions he was not satisfied the risks to the community or herself were acceptable.
He said she was receiving appropriate “feminising medication” in custody, and recommended she see a specialist endocrinologist.