A man stabbed a woman in a Melbourne park in a "bizarre" and unprovoked mid-morning attack before going shopping with his mum, a court has heard.
Dimitri Evangelou, 19, has been sentenced to three years' detention in a Youth Justice Centre before the County Court after pleading guilty to one charge of recklessly causing serious injury.
Evangelou was 18 when he suddenly attacked a 21-year-old woman as she was walking near a playground in Gowanbrae about 10.20am on September 30 last year.
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After running ahead of the stranger so that he would pass her for a second time, Evangelou grabbed her and stabbed her in the back three times with a foldable knife.
The knife also caught her finger as she fell to the ground screaming.
Evangelou fled the scene, unknowingly leaving behind his phone, and the woman was helped by bystanders before being rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The court heard he then went on to Airport West Shopping Centre with his mother and went home and played the piano and video games.
He was arrested by police at 6.30pm and the knife was found taped under his bed.
The woman was left needing surgery on her finger, which she said was still numb in April this year, and suffered pain from the stab wounds for months.
She also suffered psychological trauma from the attack.
The court heard Evangelou had no memory of the attack and no reason for it.
Judge Douglas Trapnell describe the attack as a "motiveless and bizarre crime".
"You violently attacked a lone defenceless woman with a knife who was unknown to you and who did nothing to provoke you in a public place in broad daylight for no apparent reason," Judge Trapnell said.
The court heard the pizza shop employee was "of otherwise good character" and had not previously offended.
It was heard Evangelou has reported suffering hallucinations in prison, but that there was no clear explanation that he suffered a mental illness at the time of the attack.
However, Judge Trapnell noted there was the possibility Evangelou had been experiencing symptoms of, or was in the early stages of, a psychotic illness.
Having been locked up since his arrest, Evangelou has already served 454 days of his sentence.
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