Not a costume party

This is one of those times when the kind and courteous agreement to call men who have transitioned to being trans women “women” with no further qualification is not a good plan. People who go into convenience stores to swing axes at random shoppers are rarely female.

The headline: Sydney axe attack: Woman guilty of trying to kill strangers

The text:

A woman who attacked two people with an axe in an Australian convenience store has been convicted of attempted murder.

Evie Amati, 26, carried out the unprovoked attack in Sydney last year.

After entering the 7-Eleven store, Amati used the axe to strike a man in the face and a woman in the back of the head. Both victims suffered serious injuries.

Amati had pleaded not guilty, arguing that she was experiencing a psychosis at the time of the attack.

The New South Wales District Court convicted her of three charges on Friday, after almost two days of deliberations by a jury.

During the trial, the court heard that Amati’s victims thought she had come from a costume party when she entered the store about 02:00 on 7 January last year.

CCTV footage shows Evie Amati swinging an axe at Ben Rimmer

See the axe? It connected, knocking the guy down and breaking his face.

Amati attacked her second victim, Sharon Hacker, near the door, leaving her with a fractured skull.

Amati then attempted to strike a third person, Shane Redwood, outside the store, but he managed to use his backpack as a shield. She was arrested shortly later.

Her lawyer, Charles Waterstreet, told the court that she had been “out of her mind” at the time, and was affected by drugs, alcohol and prescription medication.

Amati testified that her mental health had declined after she began taking hormones to transition from male to female.

And that’s how long it took the BBC to make clear that Amati is trans. Most people reading the story won’t have read that far.

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