7-Eleven axe attacker Evie Amati involved in jail fight
Evie Amati, who was jailed over an axe attack at a 7-Eleven, has been involved in a prison fight because other inmates want her moved to a male jail.
EXCLUSIVE
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Convicted axe attacker Evie Amati, who was jailed over an axe attack at a 7-Eleven, has been involved in a prison fight because other inmates want her moved to a male jail.
Amati’s involvement in a prison fight emerged during an appeal against her “manifestly inadequate” sentence for attempting to murder three people with an axe in January 2017.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal heard that Amati’s maximum nine-year and minimum four-and-a-half year sentence was “so manifestly inadequate that it is an affront to the administration of justice”.
Crown barrister Maria Cinque told the CCA that nine years was inappropriate for just one of the three attacks, on victim Ben Rimmer whose face Amati split, fracturing his nasal bone, eye socket and cheekbones.
News.com.au has learned that Amati, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2014, had been involved in fights at the all-female Mary Wade Women’s Correctional Centre since her 2018 trial.
During the appeal against Amati’s short sentence, it emerged that she and a female inmate became involved in a fight after the inmate told Amati she should be in a male prison.
One of the reasons for this altercation was Amati was “de-transitioning” from female back to male.
Amati, 27, attacked two customers buying milk and a pie in a suburban 7-Eleven with an axe and then chased down a homeless man in the street on a rampage after a bad Tinder date.
She struck the first victim, Mr Rimmer, in the face with the axe, causing him life threatening injuries as he lay bleeding profusely onto the shop’s floor.
Amati then struck Sharon Hacker in the back of the neck with a potentially fatal blow dulled by thick dreadlocks, and a second blow missing by centimetres.
Mr Rimmer had four metal plates inserted in his face, which he can feel through his skin, and Ms Hacker suffers ongoing nerve damage as a result of the attacks.
The third victim, Shane Redwood, who blocked the axe with his backpack has since left Australia to return to his native Britain.
Before the late-night attack, Amati had been on a failed Tinder date and ingested a cocktail of drugs with alcohol.
She’d bought the axe months before and tested it on a couch, and on the night of the attacks heard a voice telling her to “kill and maim … and start the rise of hell on Earth”.
Sentenced in January this year, Amati faced a maximum 75 years in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.
Mr Rimmer spoke exclusively with news.com.au after the sentence, revealing horrific photos of his injuries and the fact Amati “nearly cut my head in half”.
Mr Rimmer started a change.org petition and within weeks the DPP appealed to the CCA to hear an appeal against the inadequacy of Amati’s sentence.
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Maria Cinque for the Crown told the CCA last week Amati’s sentence showed “a disconnection”.
“The non-parole period [four-and-a-half years] is only six months more than the indicative (minimum) sentence for the first offence,” she said.
Amati’s barrister, Peter Lange, told the court the sentencing judge had taken into account several unusual features, including the interplay of gender dysphoria, a depressive illness and drug-taking.
The jury in Amati’s trial rejected her defence and plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness, but Judge Mark Williams found special circumstances applied to Amati.
Mr Lange told the appeal court the victims’ injuries were significant, but they didn’t rise to the level of lasting and severe disability.
He said that in prison Amati had shown remorse and participated in a lengthy addiction program.