Killer teen Jamie Lee Dolheguy’s bizarre history of acting like a cat
A Victorian teenager who strangled her online date with the cord of a sex toy is “so damaged” that she had a history of acting like a cat, a court has heard.
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A teen who killed a man she met online dating had a history of acting like a cat and other dissociative behaviours, a court has heard.
Jamie Lee Dolheguy, now 20, is on trial for the murder of Maulin Rathod, a man she met on dating app Plenty of Fish when she was 18.
She has confessed to killing the 24-year-old but has pleaded not guilty to murder.
The Supreme Court heard today Ms Dolheguy had a disturbingly traumatic upbringing and had been in care since she was 10.
Forensic psychologist Eamonn McCarthy said she was among the most traumatised people he’d ever worked with.
He said she was regularly verbally and physically aggressive towards care staff.
On one occasion, after fleeing from her home, she was found at a swamp and in what was described as “in a catlike presentation”.
On another occasion, Ms Dolheguy had stripped down naked and climbed up a tree in her backyard, the court heard.
Dr McCarthy said a deterioration in Ms Dolheguy’s mental health during her teenage years led to periods of inpatient care.
He said Ms Dolheguy would dissociate to remove herself from situations, and at times became non responsive.
“It’s fair to say that Jamie certainly is considerably more traumatised than many other young people I’ve worked with,” he said.
The court has been told Ms Dolheguy had a long history of self-harm and had undergone more than 100 procedures as a result of attempts to injure herself.
Her lawyer Sharon Lacy has told the 13-person jury that there was no dispute Ms Dolheguy killed Mr Rathod.
But she said she had no murderous intent.
Ms Lacy said her client suffered a childhood marred by extreme abuse and complex psychiatric difficulties.
“Ms Dolheguy is so damaged, her mind was in such chaos, you couldn’t be satisfied she had murderous intent,” she told the jury.
Ms Dolheguy met Mr Rathod, 24, online and the pair agreed to meet on July 23 last year.
She later told police the minute he messaged her to meet up she knew she was going to kill him, saying she had an urge to kill.
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She googled: “I’m going to kill someone tonight for fun” followed by “I’m going to kill someone tonight help” and “I will kill someone tonight, I want to commit murder”.
Shortly after Mr Rathod, 24, arrived at her Sunbury home Ms Dolheguy strangled him during a sex act.
She then phoned police and confessed to killing him.
Ms Dolheguy had been under the watch of two carers in a comprehensive round the clock care regimen to deal with her complex mental health needs.
But the care had been reduced to just eight hours a day in the months before she killed Mr Rathod.
In their first face-to-face meeting, she told him: “I have like psychopathic tendencies in my head and I’m not really that safe.”
After killing him, she told police: “I think I killed someone, I didn’t want to but I did it … I strangled him, he’s on my bed, it feels so good, I don’t want to be a killer.”
The hearing, before Justice Peter Almond, continues.