24-year-old woman stabbed Snapchat date in the head with an ax - sentenced

It was this summer that the woman and the man got in touch via Snapchat. After some chatting, they decide to meet. One July morning, the man goes home to the woman in the Stockholm area.

They go to a store and shop. On the way from the store, the woman suggests that they go through a forest. She says that the man can walk a little ahead of her.

Suddenly the man feels something hit him in the back of the head.

- The whole head is shaking. It vibrates, he says later in questioning.

The attack comes without any warning. When he turns around, he sees the woman holding an axe. He does not remember if she attacks him several times, but doctors will later determine that he also has a wound in his back.

The man's injuries are life-threatening. He has a fractured skull and is bleeding, but somehow manages to escape. At the same time as the man calls SOS Alarm, he tries to stop the bleeding with his hand. During the conversation, two passers-by come to help him.

The woman was arrested shortly afterwards in her home. Police note that she appears to have tried to wash the dress she was wearing during the attack with chlorine.

At first she denies any wrongdoing. She says in questioning that the man kept the ax in the waistband of his trousers and attacked her. According to the woman, an uneven fight then arose because the man was stronger than her.

- Then it happens that I swing at him. He was not meant to be hit, says the 24-year-old, claiming that she acted in self-defense.

Some time later, she requests a new hearing. Now she has completely changed her story and instead admits to attempted murder of the man.

The 24-year-old says she started hearing voices telling her to hurt the man when he came to her house. When they were on their way to the store, she put the ax in her purse to drown out the voices, but now the voices have turned into intense screams. In the forest, the voices order her to hit the man in the head.

- I couldn't handle hearing these voices and thoughts that were on me and screaming all the time, says the woman in police interrogation.

Although the woman stated that she heard voices, it is established in a forensic psychiatric statement that the woman did not carry out the ax attack under the influence of a serious mental disorder. The 24-year-old is not considered to have suffered from any serious mental disorder.

In its verdict, the Södertörn district court writes that the woman has clear memories of the sequence of events and that she was fully aware of what she did. Thereby, the requirement of awareness is considered to be fulfilled and according to the court it is clear that she has acted with intent.

Hitting someone in the head with an ax is something that "typically can be considered to be associated with danger to life", writes the district court and points out that the woman had that insight. It is emphasized that the act was both serious and reckless, but at the same time the woman's mental health is taken into account.

She is sentenced to nine years in prison for attempted murder and must also pay more than SEK 260,000 in damages to the man.