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CCTV captures violent axe attack in Sydney 7-Eleven. / News.com.au
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Twenty minutes before Evie Amati allegedly carried out the horrifying axe attack caught on video, she wrote a chilling post on Facebook: "Humans are only able to destroy to hate so that is what I will do", a court has heard.
The 24-year-old had been on a Tinder date with a woman and had taken amphetamines as well as cannabis and alcohol, her lawyer told Central Local Court on Tuesday.
But she had left the Tinder date, telling the woman later via Messenger that "there was no positive chemistry", her defence lawyer Charles Waterstreet said, while making an application for Amati's release from prison on bail.
Crown Prosecutor Jot Mehta, who opposed bail, told the court that following the failed date, Amati had said on Facebook Messenger that she was worried the woman had found her ugly, did not make eye contact and may not have known she was transgender.
Mehta said it was the "bitterness of rejection" of the failed Tinder date and a recently failed relationship "that fuelled a homicidal ideation she had harboured for some considerable time".
Mehta said in March and July 2016, Amati had told doctors " I'm going to kill a lot of people".
Speaking in a strong well-modulated voice, Amati responded to Magistrate Karen Robinson's inquiries about occasional lapses of the video link from jail.
As Waterstreet described the "pain, suffering and torment" she had gone through during a daily "dilation" process following her sex change operation in Thailand, Amati wept.
"Together with the breakup from her partner ... She was feeling suicidal," he told the court as Amati bent forward and put her face into her hands.
On the night of the attack, of which Waterstreet said the facts were not in doubt because of the "high quality" video, Evie Amati had gone out with a woman called Michaela Janson.
He told the court Janson and Amati had started talking via Tinder at 3.10pm on the afternoon before the attack.
They had met up and gone by taxi to a hotel and several other venues and taken what they thought was the drug ecstasy.
"It wasn't ecstasy, it was another form of amphetamine believed to be MDMA," Waterstreet said.
Waterstreet said Janson had supplied the drug, but Mehta disagreed, saying it had been obtained at the Burdekin hotel in inner city Darlinghurst.
At 12.48am, five minutes into a shared taxi ride, Amati decided to leave the date.
When Janson sent her a subsequent Facebook message, Amati responded "I'm all good".
But Waterstreet said she had then descended into psychosis.
Subsequent messages posted via Facebook said "spirits untroubled by the terrors of the world " and "most people deserve to die".
The terrifying video of the vicious January 7 axe attack was played in Central Local Court, while Amati - who was watching via video from prison - could be heard sobbing.
As the video showed the attacker swinging the axe high in the air and bringing it down on Ben Rimmer's head, Amati could be heard crying and saying "oh no" on the audio link from Silverwater jail.
As the two further swings of the axe rained down on Sharon Hacker, Amati could be heard sobbing and saying "oh f***".
Charles Waterstreet told the court Amati's reaction to the playing of the video and her "audible sounds in court" showed her own "shock and horror" at the attack.
CCTV of Amati on her Tinder date earlier in the evening before the axe attack was also played in court.
It showed her in a black lacy top and shorts with another woman carrying bags and waiting for a lift on a street in Marrickville in Sydney's inner west at 10.49pm on January 6 this year.
Crown prosecutor Jot Mehta also played CCTV of Amati being wheeled in to St Vincent's Hospital on stretcher at 3.58am.
He said after she was taken into accident and emergency she "spontaneously sits up".
Mehta said Amati would pose an "unacceptable risk to the community" if released for treatment at a private Sydney psychiatric clinic and that she had been well aware if what she was doing.
Evie Amati (above), formerly known as Karl, transitioned to woman over four years ago after announcing it to friends on Facebook. Photo / Facebook
He said after the attack she had walked from the 7-Eleven down the road and "selected the most discreet place to lay down" on the footpath.
He said she had then "waited there, the axe was sat upright, her phone was beside her" and "feigned unconsciousness" until police and an ambulance arrived.
Earlier, Waterstreet said he hoped Amati could be released from Silverwater Women's Prison to take up a bed at the private Sydney Clinic for treatment of psychosis.
He said "there is no treatment for transgenders in jail" and that Amati, who faces charges including wound with intent to murder, is of "no threat" to the community.
The case is before Magistrate Karen Robinson in Sydney's Central Local Court today.
Waterstreet said on the last occasion that Amati's case was in the court that "there's an explanation for everything" that allegedly occurred in the attack caught on video, which was exclusively obtained by news.com.au.
He said Amati should be released into the care of the mental health facility the Sydney Clinic and that she was "no risk" of harm to anyone.
News.com.au revealed the shocking CCTV footage two days after the attacks which shows a woman strolling casually into the 7-Eleven with a large axe and then viciously attacking two customers in a bloody rampage.
Police allege Amati is the heavily tattooed young woman with scruffy blonde hair that walks through the automatic doors of the 7-Eleven just at 2.19am in the inner city Sydney suburb of Enmore.
In the video the woman swings the axe at Ben Rimmer, who is in the 7-Eleven buying a pie.
A stunned Mr Rimmer lies reeling on the ground as the woman takes a second swing of the axe at the prostrate Sharon Hacker who has collapsed outside the shop door. Photo / News.com.au
The axe wielder then attacks another customer, 43-year-old Sharon Hacker who is buying milk, and then steps over her and exists the shop.
Waterstreet told Central Local Court following the alleged attack that Amati was suffering from psychosis, delusions and hallucinations "saying kill".
Police initially charged Amati, a union employee, with two counts of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm in the alleged attack.
But the charges were upgraded, and she has now been charged with attempting to cause wounding with intent to murder a third alleged victim.
Magistrate Karen Robinson has deferred her decision on whether or not to grant Amati bail until after 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.
With Mr Rimmer on the floor (bottom left) the woman, who has a knife in her back pocket, then swings the axe at Sharon Hacker who stands at the threshold of the sliding glass exit door. Photo / News.com.au
