Face of Nation : A New Zealand woman who stabbed two people in separate incidents in Melbourne has been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Anne Hart, 20, savagely stabbed an international student in Melbourne four days before Christmas and a stranger in his aunt’s car months later.
Hart faced the County Court on Friday over several charges including intentionally causing injury in circumstances of gross violence, robbery and theft.
The court heard Hart stabbed a Chinese woman in the face, neck and chest with a serrated fishing knife in the early hours of December 21, 2016 after hearing voices in her head that told her to carry out the attack.
The victim had been riding a bicycle home from work when she stopped to help a group of people she believed were lost, after they called out to her multiple times.
Hart walked in front of the woman, then put her in a headlock before stabbing her. One of the men grabbed her bag and the trio ran off. The victim had emergency surgery to repair her cornea, and plastic surgery.
Judge Elizabeth Gaynor said among the victim’s injuries was a deep wound from her lower lip to neck, and the “complete severing of the nerve providing sensory innovation for the skin around the outer ear”.
“You told police you were drunk, quote ‘off my face’, you described what you did. You said you that were fighting voices about whether to do what you described, you described yourself as a bad person,” Judge Gaynor said.
“This was a terribly savage attack.”
Months later, Hart stabbed a 27-year-old man who had driven her and two friends to Sunshine Railway Station as she sat directly behind him in the back seat.The man possibly had metal lodged in his skull among his many injuries from the “incredibly savage attack”, Judge Gaynor said.
Just hours before, Hart had swung a knife at another male in Melbourne’s CBD, near Flinders Street Station, and took his bag with a laptop.
She was meant to be taking anti-psychotic medication for her borderline personality disorder at the time of one of the attacks.
Hart also has a major depressive illness and post-traumatic stress disorder. She suffered an abusive upbringing and uses alcohol and ice.Hart will be eligible for parole in four years, having already served 758 days. She may be deported to New Zealand on her release.
