Tamika Lee Smith pleads guilty over terrifying St Kilda attack on elderly woman

A drug user who randomly jumped into an elderly woman’s car in St Kilda, threatened her with a carving fork and ripped out her hair, has learnt her fate in court.

A drug user who threatened an elderly woman with a carving fork and ripped out her hair in a frightening random attack in St Kilda will be released from prison after spending more than a year behind bars.

Tamika Lee Smith, 40, appeared at the County Court on Tuesday where she pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and causing injury recklessly in relation to the incident on July 6, 2022.

Smith, then aged 38, got into the 80-year-old victim’s car, began screaming at her and threatened her with the fork, ripping some of her hair out, before demanding she drive her to the airport.

Smith will be free to leave prison on Wednesday, August 23 after Judge Stewart Bayles sentenced her to time already served for the offences – a total of 390 days.

Judge Bayles also sentenced Smith to a nine month community corrections order, where she must be supervised and attend mental health and drug treatment.

He said notwithstanding the seriousness of the matter, he took into account the fact Smith had spent 13 months in custody and was prepared to take the view that was sufficient punishment for the offences.

He accepted that Smith suffered from mental health conditions and that her moral culpability was somewhat reduced because of that.

But Judge Bayles said it was a serious offence to commit against another person – yelling, demanding money, and producing a weapon while in a confined environment.

“It’s threatening, it’s dangerous and it would have been a very frightening experience for your victim in this matter,” he said.

He said the victim, who was 80 at the time, had expressed some level of sympathy and compassion for Smith in her “measured” victim impact statement.

Smith appeared via video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on Tuesday, where she has spent 389 days in custody.

A victim impact statement from her elderly victim was presented to the court but not read out, but the court heard the woman, now 82, was “extremely distressed and shaken” after the incident.

The court heard that the victim came out of Beacon Lighting on St Kilda Rd about 12.50pm July 6 when she saw Smith standing on the gutter near her car.

Smith politely asked her for the time, which she gave, then the victim got in the car.

Smith then “without hesitation” opened the back passenger door and sat in the front passenger seat, becoming agitated and screaming at the victim.

Smith then pulled out a 30cm barbecue carving fork from her bag which she had purchased from the Salvation Army on Carlisle St moments before.

She began waving it towards the victim’s face saying ‘Give me your money, give me your purse’ but the victim said she didn’t have any money.

Smith, who continued to hold the fork and yell, then demanded the victim drive her to the airport but she said she couldn’t.

Tamika Lee Smith, 40, appeared at the County Court on Tuesday where she pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and causing injury recklessly

When the victim tried to get out of the car Smith grabbed her hair so hard that a chunk of hair came out. Smith then grabbed the barbecue fork and held it up to the woman’s throat.

The victim screamed and begged her to take the fork away and spoke to her sympathetically in a bid to get her to calm down, offering to drop her somewhere safe.

She dropped the woman off near First Step, an addiction, mental health and legal services hub between Barkly St and Carlisle St, before returning home and reporting the incident to police.

Smith later told police “I think I gave the lady a scare’ and she said just wanted to be arrested.

Smith’s defence lawyer asked that the term of imprisonment did not exceed the time Smith had already spent in custody, and asked it be combined with a short community corrections order with a mental health condition, to supervise her transition into the community.

She asked the judge to take into account Smith’s early plea of guilty, her remorse, and the admissions made.

She detailed Smith’s difficult childhood including the fact she lost her mum to suicide when she was just 18 months old, went to six or seven different primary schools and was kicked out of home in Year 8.

By 18 she had had a number of personal relationships involving family violence and had been hospitalised by assaults, including being stabbed in the hand.

She started drinking heavily and using cannabis from the age of 12 and has a history of heroin and methamphetamine use.

Her defence lawyer told the court Smith had stable accommodation to move into upon her release, her mental state had improved, and she would be supported by a long term health practitioner.