Voice told alleged axe attacker to ‘kill and maim’, court hears

BEFORE Evie Amati allegedly attacked two people with an axe in a Sydney 7-Eleven, a voice in her head gave her a specific — and frightening — instruction.

A TRANSGENDER woman who attacked two people with an axe at a Sydney 7-Eleven store says a voice told her to “kill and maim” and “start the rise of hell on earth”, a jury has heard.

Evie Amati, 26, has pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent to murder two store customers and attempting to wound a pedestrian with intent to murder in Enmore, in the city’s inner west, in the early hours of January 7, 2017.

CCTV footage of the assault, showing Amati swinging an axe with both hands and blood gushing from one of her victims, was played to the 12-person jury at her trial last week.

In the District Court today, Amati was asked by her barrister Charles Waterstreet about her memory of that night’s events, specifically after she arrived home from a Tinder date with Mickila Jahnsen.

The court heard Amati had taken a pill, which she thought was ecstasy or MDMA, with Ms Jahnsen and others, but got out of a car they were travelling in after thinking they had all secretly talked about her being transgender.

Evie Amati, 24, of Enmore, the woman accused of an axe attack at an inner west convenience store. Picture: Facebook

Amati said she started hearing “inaudible whispers” as she walked home, smoked two joints on the balcony to “anaesthetise” herself, rocked back-and-forth and listened to her favourite song — Flatline by US metal band Periphery.

“I just wanted someone to come and stroke my head and tell me that everything would be OK,” Amati said.

“I only really had one more memory … that voice that had been telling me to kill and maim, and inflict pain on people and start the rise of hell on earth.

“I recall everything going quiet and feeling that voice come inside and I remember that smile, the smile that was not mine, a sinister smile that plastered my face that I couldn’t control and then I black(ed) out.”

Mr Waterstreet says the jury will have to consider the state of mind and intent of Amati, and whether a defence of mental illness can be made.