Girls who ‘stabbed playmate to please Slender Man’ must stay in adult court, judge says

A Wisconsin judge has ruled that two girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please the fictitious online horror character Slender Man will stay in adult court, where they could face decades in prison.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren said Monday he was worried that the girls, aged 12 at the time of last year’s attack, would stop receiving mental health treatment and be released into the community with no supervision when they exited the juvenile system at age 18. Keeping them in the adult system would protect people longer, the judge said.

“The real issue is what happens in a few years,” Bohren said. “They’ve committed an offence that was ... frankly vicious.”

The two girls, both wearing dresses and in shackles, said nothing during the 45-minute proceeding. One of them bounced in her chair until a bailiff whispered to her. She spent the rest of the hearing hunched over and glancing at the ceiling. The girls’ attorneys also said nothing to the judge.

One of their attorneys, Maura McMahon, told reporters outside the courtroom that she was “of course” disappointed and her client didn’t understand what had happened. She said she planned to discuss an appeal with the girl and the attorney then left. The other defence attorneys and prosecutors departed without speaking to reporters.

The girls are both from Waukesha, a conservative Milwaukee suburb. They each face a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the May 2014 attack on their classmate, Payton Leutner. According to a criminal complaint, the girls plotted for months before they lured Payton into some woods after a sleepover and attacked her with a knife. Payton was stabbed 19 times but survived.