Man Who Slashed Woman's Throat After 'Hearing' Voices Of METALLICA Members Found Not Guilty

July 22, 2020

According to ABC News, an Australian man who slashed a cleaner's throat from "ear to ear" after claiming to hear voices of METALLICA bandmembers has been found not guilty of attempted murder due to mental incompetence.

27-year-old Jai Penning believed he heard the voices of the METALLICA singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, along with the devil, when he attacked a 30-year-old woman in the Parabanks Shopping Centre, at Salisbury in Adelaide, in July 2018.

Penning was reportedly suffering from psychosis due to his treatment-resistant schizophrenia at the time of the attack. He also had cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines in his system.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Sam Doyle found Penning not guilty of attempted murder, saying Jai "gradually became overwhelmed" by his long-standing hallucinations, including hearing voices which he believed came from Hetfield and Ulrich.

"[These voices] persuaded him to take his own life but before doing so, they instead encouraged or drove him to carry out the attack he did," Justice Doyle said. "The place and victim of the attack were essentially random."

Penning will remain in a secure mental health facility until his next appearance in September.

Find more on Metallica
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).