‘Unexplained’: Dimitri Evangelou jailed for brazen and bizarre daylight stabbing on woman walking
A man who launched a horrific stabbing attack on a random woman in broad daylight for no reason has made a stunning claim in court.
WARNING: Graphic
A Melbourne teenager launched an “unexplained and bizarre” stabbing attack on a woman in broad daylight as she walked through a park.
But Dimitri Evangelou claims he has no memory of the horrific assault he launched on the 22-year-old woman on the morning of September 3 last year.
The 19-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing serious injury and was sentenced to three years imprisonment in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday.
“You violently attacked a lone and defenceless woman with a knife who had done nothing to provoke you in a public place in broad daylight,” Judge Douglas Trapnell said during sentencing.
“Your conduct is bizarre and you appear to have absolutely no memory at all of the events leading up to it … this is a very concerning aspect,” he said.
The judge said Evangelou’s behaviour was “unexplained and bizarre”.
The victim walked past Evangelou, then aged 18, as she headed home after having coffee with her dad with headphones in her ears.
The teen spotted the woman, ran so he was ahead of her and lay in wait before he jumped out from behind her as she rounded a bend near a playground.
He stabbed her repeatedly in the back with a folded knife and slashed her finger so deeply it was “partially amputated”, the court was told.
She fell to the ground and screamed, while Evangelou ran away through the playground and bystanders rushed to help.
It was a random attack and the woman was a stranger, the court was told.
The woman previously detailed the horrific impact the random attack had on her life.
“I am grateful it did not happen to someone else who may not have had the support I do,” she said in a statement read out in court.
“It caused a fear in me that I never used to have.”
The woman had nightmares after the attack, had three obvious scars on her back and her finger felt numb nearly a year after the attack.
The doctor who treated her at the Royal Melbourne Hospital said the wounds had potential to injure her lungs, abdomen and kidneys, but this was avoided.
Evangelou repeatedly claimed he had no memory of the events and there were concerns he might have early signs of a psychosis, the court was told.
“I have had a lot of time to think about it, but I just can’t explain it,” the teen told a psychiatrist.
His phone was also found at the scene of the attack, and police uncovered the knife used in the attack in his bed slats along with a bloodied shirt.
Evangelou has spent more than 450 days on remand and, with time served, the teen could be released in less than two years.