Anthony Larmah, 25, pleads guilty over Belmont attack, arson

A mother-of-four was left with two metal shards in her head after being attacked with a meat cleaver before her home was set alight a court heard, but the perpetrator’s mental state is complex.

Damage to the Belmont home from a fire Anthony Larmah lit in one of the bedrooms. The home was rendered “uninhabitable”, according to the prosecution.

A severely mentally ill man viciously assaulted a mother-of-four with a meat cleaver, before the family fled over a fence as he set their home on fire, a court has heard.

Anthony Larmah, 25, appeared in the County Court at Geelong on Thursday via videolink from custody, having earlier pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, attempted aggravated burglary, arson and assaulting an emergency worker.

Crown prosecutor Nicholas Batten told the court, around 6.20am on July 20, 2023, Larmah went to an associate’s home in Belmont and attempted to climb in a bedroom window.

His associate woke and alerted his 49-year-old mother, who grabbed a rolling pin and went outside.

She recognised Larmah by the clothes he was wearing and, later, by his voice.

During the altercation, Larmah struck the woman in the head “multiple times” with a meat cleaver, resulting in skull fractures and cuts to her scalp, face and hands. The buccal nerve in her cheek was severed in three places.

Police were at the scene several hours after the incident.

One of the woman’s children woke to his mother’s screams and called triple-0.

During an exchange with the victim Larmah said: “I want to come in and to kill your son”.

The woman pretended to let him in, but only to give herself a chance to run inside.

Larmah then smashed his associate’s bedroom window and set his bed on fire, as the injured woman and three of her children fled outside and over the fence, helped by a neighbour.

Larmah fled on a bicycle and was arrested soon after.

The woman’s injuries required surgery and she was left with two small, metal fragments “embedded in her head”.

In a statement read by Mr Batten, the woman said it was the “worst day of (her) life”.

She said she struggled to sleep and had lost a part of herself she “would never get back”.

During the incident, Larmah was in a psychotic state and his complicated and severe mental health issues were at the forefront of submissions by his lawyer, barrister Emily Allan.

The court heard Larmah had been diagnosed with schizophrenia that affected him to the point a forensic psychiatrist found he had a mental impairment defence.

The psychiatrist recommended Larmah receive a court-ordered secure treatment order – a position the defence adopted – prompting Judge Gerard Mullaly to ask why the matter was proceeding as a criminal plea.

“His decision (is) to be found guilty of a crime, when the opinions I’m to rely upon are that he was mentally impaired at the time,” Judge Mullaly said.

A treatment order following a guilty plea can only run for as long as a prospective prison sentence, while a supervision order under the Crimes Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried Act (CMIA) is indefinite.

Ms Allan said that Larmah, having all the options explained to him, wanted to plead to “accept responsibility”.

She said he had previously received inadequate treatment but was now fit to plead.

“It is a case that sits outside the ordinary, it is going to proceed in an unusual way and it has caused me some discomfort too, but I have received clear instructions,” Ms Allan said.

Judge Mullaly adjourned the matter to November 6, so a report from Forensicare could be sought.

Originally published as Anthony Larmah, 25, pleads guilty over Belmont attack, arson