Judge considers whether 22-year-old who stabbed sleeping homeless man in Brisbane should ever be released
This article is more than 1 month oldYoung man guilty of attempted murder to undergo psychiatric assessment as judge seeks explanation for crimes
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A man who committed a “highly unusual” murder attempt will undergo a court-ordered psychiatric assessment that could decide whether he will ever be suitable for release back into the community.
Anthony Daniel Rajek was this week found guilty of attempted murder and acts intending to cause grievous bodily harm.
Rajek, then aged 21, stabbed a homeless man in the neck just after 3.30am on 15 January 2022 in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall.
The 52-year-old alleged victim, who was unknown to Rajek, was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Rajek faced Brisbane supreme court on Friday for sentencing but Justice Peter Callaghan said he would first need to make an attempt at finding an explanation for the offences.
Callaghan said with no apparent connections to mental health issues nor the possibility for treatment and prevention of repeat offending, he would have to wonder how the community could ever be made safe from Rajek.
“[Rajek] was prowling the streets of Brisbane armed with a significant weapon and giving every appearance of what I would call a hunting expedition,” he said.
The judge said the only mental health information he had was that Rajek had suffered from auditory hallucinations, but there was no forensic psychiatrist’s report into whether this was connected to his offending.
Crown prosecutor Dejana Kovac said Rajek had engaged with mental health services in custody and had told police he was intoxicated with alcohol at the time of the stabbing.
Rajek’s barrister Nicholas Brown said his client had a mental health history and he had subpoenaed his medical records.
Callaghan said he was not blaming anybody as it was a notorious problem that people fell through the cracks of the health system and ended up being dealt with by the justice system.
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“If he had fallen through the cracks someone could make a recommendation to stop it happening again. I could be wrong. I would like to know all there is to know,” the judge said.
Rajek, through his defence team, told the court he would consent to a psychiatric assessment.
Callaghan said the court would pay for the examination and it would be carried out through Queensland Corrective Services.
“We’ll see if we can get an explanation, otherwise I don’t know what I can conclude other than [Rajek] is a menace to the community and will remain so for life,” Callaghan said.
Rajek’s sentencing was adjourned until 16 February 2024 for a pre-sentence report including an assessment of any current or previous mental health diagnosis extent to which, at all, the condition was linked to his offending and prospects for release from prison.
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