The courtroom was packed on Wednesday as Thomas Hamp took the stand in his own murder trial.
Hamp was questioned about his “delusional behaviour, false memories, and paranoia” leading up to the stabbing of his girlfriend, Emily Sanche, in February 2022, as well as what happened during the attack.
He admitted to the court that he had been dishonest at times with Sanche and health professionals about his paranoia and delusions, downplaying symptoms to appear “okay.”
Against doctors’ orders, he was also weaning off his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and antidepressant medication.
“At the time, I thought they would brainwash me and chemically castrate me,” said Hamp.
Hamp described several specific delusions and false memories he believed to be true, which only escalated leading up to the attack.
“I had the belief that my cousin had molested me as a child,” said Hamp. “It absolutely didn’t happen.”
Hamp told the court that on the day he stabbed Sanche, he spent “much of the day pacing and engulfed in paranoia.”
He said he was convinced the secret police were monitoring he and Sanche and were coming to take them away to “torture and murder them.”
Hamp says there are gaps in his memory of the attack but recalls, “At a certain point, I was in the bedroom with a knife, Emily came in and saw it — screamed and ran out of the bedroom.”
He recalls Sanche calling for help, but doesn’t remember stabbing her. He said that the last thing he remembered was a neighbour coming in saying they were calling 911.
Hamp said his reasoning for stabbing himself and lying to the police about who stabbed them was, “The only way to avoid the secret police,” and he believed killing them both was a “more merciful way to go.”
Hamp now refers to his state of mind at that time as “extreme fear and irrational threats.” He currently feels stable, taking a daily antidepressant and receiving a psychosis injection.