The man accused of stabbing two students at a university and injuring others with a frying pan has pleaded not guilty by virtue of mental impairment.
Alex Ophel has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of common assault and one count of possessing an object with the intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.
His lawyer entered the plea in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Ophel remains in custody, with the case to return to court on May 23.
He is accused of repeatedly stabbing two women and bashing other students over the head with a frying pan at the Australian National University in September 2023.
Two 20-year-old women were taken to hospital and a third man was treated at the scene following the incident.
The mother of Ilysha Perry, a 20-year-old arts student allegedly stabbed by Ophel, has expressed her feelings of horror when she heard about what happened.
Fiona Coffey said she was grateful her daughter was still alive but her daughter would have serious long-term issues and would not be the same.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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