A Perth man who confessed to an undercover police officer that he violently bludgeoned his pregnant lover to death with a claw hammer will spend the next 24 years behind bars over the brutal attack.
Hassan Jabbie, 53, was angry that Janet Dweh, a 36-year-old nurse and mother-of-three from Dayton, had become pregnant as a result of their brief affair in 2021.
Janet Dweh was bludgeoned to death in her Dayton home.
Jabbie was married but estranged.
During his sentencing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Monday, the court was told the pregnancy, if it progressed, would cause great shame to him and his family in the wider close-knit Liberian community in WA.
Jabbie had gone to Dweh’s home on the day of her death with his wife to try and talk her into terminating her pregnancy, but she refused. Her unborn son was already at 34 weeks gestation.
The court had heard voicemail recordings he had previously left on her phone.
“You told her she was a prostitute, a harlot, dirty and nasty,” Justice Joseph McGrath said.
Perth nurse Janet Dweh.
Jabbie also told her to “never ever” mention his name.
“Your statements in that recording show your level of animosity and anger arising from the fact she would not have an abortion,” McGrath said.
On the evening of October 3, 2021, Jabbie was seen on CCTV cameras walking to Dweh’s home after parking on a nearby street. He was wearing a dark hoodie and carrying a backpack with a claw hammer inside.
Whether he went there specifically to kill Dweh was the subject of much discussion between his lawyer Sean Dworcan and state prosecutor Paul Usher.
On Tuesday Justice McGrath said he did not believe the then 50-year-old went to his lover’s house to kill her but that he may have contemplated that if Dweh “did not listen to your demands then the situation may turn violent”.
It was for that reason that he carried the hammer which he ultimately used to bludgeon Dweh 30 times in the head, before burying it along with the clothes he was wearing and the backpack in the dirt of a vacant block close to his Ellenbrook home.
Hassan Jabbie was sentenced over the the murder of Janet Dweh.
Justice McGrath formed that view after a recording was played during Jabbie’s trial of him confessing to the murder to an undercover police officer in a holding cell at Perth Watchhouse.
“You commenced discussing your offending,” Justice McGrath said.
“You said you wish you had never met that bitch in your life, then you said maybe one of her boyfriends did it. You complained she told you she was pregnant, and your wife was very pissed off.
“You told her to get rid of it, but the idiot refused.”
Jabbie also told the undercover cop that it was an accident; that he had gone to her house to talk to her but that she didn’t want to discuss it.
“Because she wouldn’t listen, you started to hit her ‘non-stop’ said it was hard work and wasn’t quick,” Justice McGrath said.
“You also said that as you were hitting her the baby was ‘pumping on one side’.”
A post-mortem examination later found that Dweh suffered 42 external injuries and 12 internal injuries.
“I find that you have no remorse whatsoever for your offending,” Justice McGrath said.
“Her death has impacted enormously on her family and friends … in particular on the three young children who will now spend the rest of their lives without their mother.”
Jabbie was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 24 years behind bars.
“Offenders who engage in violent attacks on women must know that severe sentences will be imposed by the court to reflect the community’s intolerance of these offences,” Justice McGrath said.
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