One Monster Goes Down, Another Goes Free
A high profile killer and an even higher profile would-be killer on opposite sides of the Atlantic were back in the news this month.
Hassan Sentamu was not quite 18 when he stabbed the 15 year old Elianne Andam to death in Croydon over a triviality. His conviction in January was reported here at the time. On March 13, he was sentenced to be detained during His Majesty’s Pleasure with a tariff of 23 years.
It has been reported that he had a history of violence against girls and aged just 12 had been given a police caution for taking a knife to school. When remanded to a secure unit to await trial, he was said to have got into an argument with another inmate and threatened to kill his mother!
At trial he didn’t take the stand but attempted to blame the murder on his autism by the legal fiction of diminished responsibility. Whatever, the jury rightly rejected his plea of guilty to manslaughter, and hopefully he will not be released until he is very old, if ever. A truly nasty piece of work.
Extreme violence may be committed primarily by males of a certain age, but women are not exempt from it, nor quite young girls. The Slender Man case dates from 2014 and is thoroughly documented; there are numerous videos about it on YouTube, but briefly, on May 13 that year, Wisconsin schoolgirls Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured Payton Leutner into the woods and stabbed her nearly to death. All three girls were just 12 years old.
Payton was stabbed 19 times including in her heart. A millimetre the other way and her aorta would have burst. If she hadn’t been found by a cyclist, she would have died anyway, but fortunately, help was summoned quickly and Payton made an amazing recovery although she must surely still bear psychological scars. Her attackers were soon arrested and the bizarre reason for this act of savagery has been played out in public many times, unsurprisingly earning its own Wikipedia entry.
Both attackers were found not guilty of attempted murder by mental disease or defect making this one Hell of a folie à deux, but were given heavy sentences in mental institutions. A heavy sentence is one thing in theory, but Weier was released four years ago on condition that she live with her father.
Geyser has been back in court recently, and in January, Judge Michael Boren ordered that she be released with restrictions. Prosecutors opposed this on account of her perceived behaviour, but last week the same judge affirmed his previous order. She has not yet been released but could be a free woman by the end of the month. If she is, hopefully we will have heard the last of her, and of her partner-in-crime.
