Reace Atkins attacks Smythesdale woman in ‘random’ knife attack

A tradie followed a woman into a chicken pen in Smythesdale before slashing at her with a knife in an unprovoked and brutal attack.

Reace Atkins was sentenced in Ballarat County Court over his unprovoked attack of a woman in Smythesdale.

A “psychotic” tradie attacked a woman with a knife during a frenzied outburst of unprovoked violence as she fed her chickens in the state’s northwest.

Scarsdale fitter and turner Reace Atkins faced Ballarat County Court where he pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally causing serious injury over the attack - for which no reason has ever come to light - and was jailed for six years.

The court heard that on the afternoon of February 17, 2022, a Smythesdale woman went to feed her chickens when she heard the pen gate latch close behind her as Atkins entered.

“Oh, did I startle you?” Atkins said, pulling a large knife with a wooden handle and curved blade from the front of his pants.

The woman screamed as he approached.

Atkins thrust the knife down towards his victim’s head, slicing her wrist when she raised her arm to protect herself.

She continued to scream, but he overpowered her and continued attacking.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“ … I’ll give you anything you want to leave me alone.”

Atkins replied: “I don’t want anything.”

But after a struggle, he left, telling his victim that he lived next door.

A Smythesdale woman was feeding her chickens when Reace Atkins attacked her.

Realising her arm was injured, the woman ran to a neighbour, but nobody was home.

She then hailed a car and told the driver she’d been stabbed, but he didn’t want his children seeing her injuries and told her to knock on the door of a house.

She did so, and was helped by its occupants.

They drove her towards town for better phone reception and encountered a police car.

The woman was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and had surgery for haemorrhage control of her left wrist.

In the meantime, Atkins returned home, put the 25cm knife in his kitchen sink, changed his shorts, and left a message on his mother’s phone.

“Please answer, mum,” he said.

“I tried to kill someone.”

His mother returned home to find Atkins distressed and agitated.

Police soon arrived, and Atkins co-operated with them before being taken to Ballarat Base Hospital.

Atkins pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury after the attack.

His victim sustained multiple wounds on her arm, wrist, fingertips, scalp, breasts, abdomen, back, and thigh — many required stitches.

The court heard she was “grateful to be alive” but continued to feel insecure.

She thought she would die during what Judge Sarah Dawes called a “random attack”.

Atkins was said to have been undergoing treatment for psychotic illness since 2013 and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The court heard he became more withdrawn after the death of his father and self-harmed on multiple occasions.

He was unable to express motivation for his actions and it was unclear whether he had been compliant with his medication at the time.

His intent was “obscured in that harm did not appear to be personal or specific,” the court was told.

“[The victim] appeared chosen for proximity rather than any other reason.”

An expert assessment said Atkins understood his behaviour was wrong “at a basic level”, but that he might have thought he was in a movie.

“Your motivation was psychotic,” it said.

Atkins was given a non-parole period of three years with 624 days already served.