Girl sentenced to 40 years in mental hospital over Slender Man stabbings

She is the second to be sentenced in the 2014 stabbing

Geyser is seen here being led into the courtroom (AP)

A Wisconsin judge has sentenced a girl to 40 years in a mental hospital for her role in the 2014 stabbing that left a classmate on the brink of death in the name of Slender Man.

Morgan Geyser was found not guilty by reason of mental disease after she and a friend lured a classmate into the woods before stabbing her and leaving her to die. The girls, who were 12 at the time, had indicated they were trying to kill their friend in the name of the fictional horror character Slender Man.

Her mental hospital sentencing followed after prosecutors asked the judge to order institutional care for the girl, and argued that a conditional release would pose a high risk for her and the community around her.

A prosecutor had testified during the trial that Geyser had scored a 142 on an IQ test, and that she suffers from schizophrenia, a "major illness".

"I never meant for it to happen, and I hope she's doing well," Geyser said during the hearing.

Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier were the assailants in a stabbing case that shocked the nation and rattled the small town of Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Then 12 years old, Geyser and Weier lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods, where they stabbed her 19 times and left her to die. They later told prosecutors that they had done it in the name of Slender Man, a fictitious horror character, whom they claimed to believe in, and who is known for stalking children.

Payton survived the attack after crawling to a nearby road where she was found by a passing car.

Weier was also found not guilty of the crimes she faced for reason of mental illness, and was sentenced last year to 25 years in mental health care. She has agreed to stay in a mental health facility for at least three years before she can seek release on community supervision. If she is eventually released, she will be under state supervision until the year 2039, when she will be 37 years old.