A 38-year-old woman has been granted bail over several charges. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
A woman allegedly compared herself to infamous serial killers from Australia and the US when sending threatening emails about Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS) workers.
“I am literally like Jeffrey Dahmer. I have disposed of 10 bodies in my apartment,” the 38-year-old allegedly wrote to an ACT Government staff member.
“I am going to be like Martin Bryant and go on a killing spree with my shotgun and my semi-automatic.
“You’re first, then [three other names] and all of CYPS.
“I’m going to kill you all.”
Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison after killing 17 people in the United States between the 1970s and 1990s, while Bryant is the shooter who murdered 35 people at Port Arthur in 1996.
In the five emails tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court that she allegedly sent to a government worker earlier this month, she reportedly said she was going to “steal” a child she knew from school.
“I am literally a psychopath with a shotgun that’s going to take vengeance on the world,” she allegedly said.
She also allegedly told the worker she would follow her to her car and hit her on the head with a baseball bat, “then I will drag you into an Uber and just tell them you’re my drunk girlfriend”.
She allegedly wrote she would take the worker back to her apartment and kill her and referred to cannibalism: “I love eating human flesh for lunch.”
The woman, who is unable to be named for legal reasons, was charged with failing to appear in court, trespassing and unlawful possession of stolen property and applied for bail on Monday.
Her lawyer, Legal Aid’s Ketinia McGowan, argued that when it came to the first charge, her client had been an inpatient in the adult mental health unit at the time.
Prosecutor Bwalya Chifuntwe, who opposed bail in part based on the likelihood of alleged reoffending and endangering the safety and welfare of another person, claimed the comments she had made were extreme.
He said she referred to wanting to dispose of bodies and go on a killing spree, had claimed she was not capable of feeling emotions and had identified staff within CYPS in her emails.
But Magistrate James Lawton put aside the emails, saying they didn’t relate to any of her charges.
He said the woman had returned to court after being treated in hospital for two days and it seemed to be significant that she received treatment.
He thought bail conditions could ameliorate the risks if she were released and granted it on conditions including that she report to police each week and not contact CYPS, except through her lawyer.
The matter was adjourned to June. No pleas were entered.
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