A young girl who stabbed her classmate because she believed that ‘Slender Man’ had told her to has been sentenced to 40 years in an institution.
Morgan Geyser was just 12 at the time when she carried out the attack in 2014, stabbing Payton Leutner 19 times because she was under the impression that it was under the instruction of fictional internet horror creation, Slender Man. Leutner’s survival was described as a “miracle”, after she crawled away to attract attention from a passing cyclist.
During sentencing in Wisconsin yesterday, Judge Michael Bohren granted the maximum penalty as “an issue if community protection”.
“What we can’t forget is this was an attempted murder,” Mr Boren told the court, reports Nola.
Speaking to the court, Geyser said: “I just want to let Bella [Luetner] and her family know that I’m sorry And I hope she’s doing well.”
Doctors revealed that she was “making progress” with her mental health, but had a long history of suffering from delusions.
“She has a condition she didn’t choose to have,” said Anthony Cotton, one of Geyser’s attorneys. Documents suggested she suffered with schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorder.
Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier (who was also 12 at the time) claimed that they thought they had to kill Payton Leutner to appease Slender Man and protect their families. It was said that Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times with encouragement from Weier, after they lured her into the woods in Waukesha, Milwaukee.
Weier meanwhile, was sentenced to 25 years in an institution back in December. Apologising before sentencing, Weier told the court that she “[holds herself] accountable for this and… will do whatever I have to do to make sure I don’t get any sort of delusion or whatever again.”
“I want everybody involved to know I deeply regret everything that happened that day,” she added. “I know that nothing I say is going to make this right and nothing I say is going to fix what I broke.”
Earlier this month, Weier’s father hit out at the upcoming Slender Man movie as being ‘extremely distasteful’.
“It’s absurd they want to make a movie like this,” said Bill Weier. “It’s popularising a tragedy is what it’s doing. I’m not surprised but in my opinion it’s extremely distasteful. All we’re doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through.”