How intelligent transgender woman went from privilege to attempted 7-Eleven axe murder

A transgender woman who tried to murder three strangers with an axe had a privileged upbringing and was a high achiever in school.

Evie Amati’s life took a downward spiral after having gender reassignment surgery, culminating in the horrific attack at a Sydney convenience store in January 2017. 

Named Karl as a child by her well-off trade union representative parents, the 26-year-old topped Western Australia in English in 2009.

 

A transgender woman who tried to murder three people with an axe had a privileged upbringing and was a high achiever in school (pictured is Evie Amati after gender reassignment surgery)

Evie Amati's life took a downward spiral after having gender reassignment surgery, culminating in the horrific attack (pictured) at a Sydney convenience store in January 2017

Evie Amati’s life took a downward spiral after having gender reassignment surgery, culminating in the horrific attack (pictured) at a Sydney convenience store in January 2017

She graduated from Perth’s progressive Shenton College in the top one per cent in the state, and moved to Sydney for university, News.com.au reported.

Still known as Karl at the time, Amati landed a union job thanks to family connections while studying sociology and US politics at the University of Sydney. 

While at university Amati became involved in student activism, joining radical far-left group Sydney Resistance and writing for Green Left Weekly.

She also played drums in a punk band she formed in 2011, Everything I Own is Broken, and performed on stage as a woman in 2013 and 2014.

Amati first broached the idea of a gender transition on social media in 2012, and flew to Thailand in 2014 with family and friends for reassignment surgery.

On her return to Australia she began taking recreational drugs to deal with the pain, her defence lawyer Charles Waterstreet told a Sydney court last week.

Pictured is Evie Amati before having gender reassignment surgery to become a woman

Pictured is Evie Amati after her transition

Still known as Karl at the time, Amati (pictured, left, as Karl, right, after transition) landed a union job thanks to family connections

Amati (pictured) graduated from Perth's progressive Shenton College in the top one per cent in the state, and moved to Sydney for university

Amati (pictured) graduated from Perth’s progressive Shenton College in the top one per cent in the state, and moved to Sydney for university

Mr Waterstreet said his client’s state of mind ‘deteriorated’ in 2015 after a break-up and she became suicidal.

She talked of wanting to jump in front of trains, and ‘twisting people’s necks on the bus’. 

The court heard Amati began to have violent fantasies, and in 2016 bought a long-handled axe which she used to destroy an old sofa.

After a Tinder date on January 6 during which she took a capsule of the drug MDA, believing it was MDMA, she sent several chilling messages to her new acquaintance.

The court heard Amati began to have violent fantasies, and in 2016 bought a long-handled axe which she used to destroy an old sofa (pictured is the 2017 attack)

The court heard Amati began to have violent fantasies, and in 2016 bought a long-handled axe which she used to destroy an old sofa (pictured is the 2017 attack)

Hours later, after changing her Facebook status to read 'Humans are only able to destroy to hate so that is what I shall do,' Amati (pictured) left home in a murderous rage

Hours later, after changing her Facebook status to read ‘Humans are only able to destroy to hate so that is what I shall do,’ Amati (pictured) left home in a murderous rage

Having ended the date because she believed the woman found her unattractive because she was transgender, Amati told her ‘some people deserve to die’.

‘One day I will kill a lot of people and it will be your fault’, she told her date, and later called her a ‘psychopath’.

Hours later, after changing her Facebook status to read ‘Humans are only able to destroy to hate so that is what I shall do’, Amati left home in a murderous rage.

Holding the axe and with a knife in her pocket, Amati walked to a 7-Eleven store in Enmore in Sydney’s inner west while listening to her favourite rap song.

Pictured is axe attack victim Sharon Hacker, who Evie Amati tried to kill at a Sydney convenience store

Pictured is axe attack victim Sharon Hacker, who Evie Amati tried to kill at a Sydney convenience store

Amati pleaded not guilty to attacking Benjamin Rimmer (pictured being treated after the attack), Sharon Hacker and Shane Redwood in the early hours of January 7, 2017

Amati pleaded not guilty to attacking Benjamin Rimmer (pictured being treated after the attack), Sharon Hacker and Shane Redwood in the early hours of January 7, 2017

She then attempted to hack two other customers to death with the axe before trying to kill a homeless man outside moments later.

Amati pleaded not guilty to attacking Benjamin Rimmer, Sharon Hacker and Shane Redwood in the early hours of January 7, 2017.

Mr Rimmer feared he would bleed to death after being struck in the face, and Ms Hacker lost 25kg afterwards and continues to suffer nerve pain.

Mr Waterstreet argued drug use and dating rejections combined with her hormonal drugs and anti-depressants to trigger mental illness.

However, the New South Wales District Court rejected the mental illness defence and found her guilty of all three charges laid against her. 

Amati will be sentenced on September 12. 

Pictured is Benjamin Rimmer, who feared he would bleed to death after Amati struck him in the face with her axe

Pictured is Benjamin Rimmer, who feared he would bleed to death after Amati struck him in the face with her axe



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