A teenage girl accused of trying to kill her classmate to appease the fictional monstrosity Slender Man has pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental illness.
Morgan Geyser, 14, and her friend Anissa Weier allegedly stabbed their 12-year-old classmate 19 times in May 2014, when they were just 12 and have both been charged with one count of attempted first degree intentional homicide each .
Geyser is due to be assessed by psychiatrists, after entering her plea at Waukesha County court on Friday, and it’s expected their report will be returned at the end of September.
BBC News – #SlenderMan case: #MorganGeyser, 14, in not guilty insanity plea https://t.co/wJkplMOr5X#Wisconsin
— ღKℓyηηღ (@Ange1ic) August 20, 2016
Despite this her legal team have raised concerns that the reports will not be accurate as they are taking place so long after the alleged incident.
Attorney Anthony Cotton said: “They’re not getting the same picture of Morgan that they would have gotten shortly after the event.”
Weier’s defence team meanwhile told the court that they will not be making the same plea, and that instead he is filing for the jury in her trial to be brought in from a different county as it would be difficult to get a fair trial currently.
Police Photo Via BBCMara MacMahon said:
Frankly with the amount of publicity there’s been, I don’t know where we could go where someone hadn’t heard of it. But there may be someplace where people have heard less intense coverage.
Weier and Geyser could be facing up to 60 years in prison for the crime they’re accused as state law requires cases to begin in adult court if juvenile suspects ,who are at least 10-years-old, are charged with first-degree attempted homicide.
The girls will most likely head to trial in March or April next year.
Prosecutors claim the pair led their classmate into the woods after a sleepover and set upon her with knives to please ‘Slenderman’. Thankfully the victim survived the attack and has now returned to school.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.