Hobart man Matthew John Davey who set his girlfriend on fire loses appeal

Hobart man Matthew John Davey set his girlfriend on fire when she said she was leaving him. Today he lost his appeal to get out of jail. The details.

Matthew John Davey set fire to his partner.

A Hobart man found guilty of attempted murder after setting his girlfriend on fire, had his appeal dismissed on all grounds in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Friday.

Matthew John Davey was sentenced to 18 years in jail for setting fire to his 20-year-old girlfriend Nicole Louise Evans after she told him she was leaving him.

Davey is serving additional time in Risdon prison for persistent family violence, trafficking in meth and unlawful trafficking in firearms.

During the complex appeal process which has spanned years, Davey at times defended himself and fought to be released from his cuffs so he could argue his case with dignity.

“I feel like (I’m being treated like) some dangerous serial killer or mafia boss who can click his fingers and make things happen,” he said.

“I’m no dangerous criminal that needs to be chained up. We’re not back in the convict days.”

Davey and Ms Evans were engaged in a “toxic” and dysfunctional relationship from 2015 with a pronounced power imbalance, said Justice Brett, who oversaw the trial in 2021.

Over the course of the relationship there were a multitude of violent incidents between the pair, escalating in severity, which also saw Davey exert “coercive control” over his young partner as he tried to curb her independence and stop her leaving him.

In April 2017 Ms Evans told Davey she wanted out of the relationship. In response he doused her in fuel, dragged her out to a garden shed and set her alight using a cigarette lighter.

There was a 14-year age difference between the couple and throughout their years together Davey has repeatedly told Ms Evans he would find her and “kill her” if she ever tried to leave him.

Domestic violence experts say the most dangerous time for a woman in a domestic violence relationship are the days and weeks following an attempt to leave a violent partner.

Ms Evans sustained “catastrophic” injuries to 68 per cent of her body and spent five months recovering in hospital, much of it sedated. She now lives with lifelong damage to her health.

Mr Davey’s years-long appeal took issue both with the length of his sentence and the conviction itself. Davey argued that there had been a “miscarriage of justice” because a “listening device” had been placed into one of the interview rooms at Risdon prison during June to August 2017.

He made a number of other claims, all of which were dismissed in the Friday judgement, including that a juror had been “contaminated” and his legal team had provided inadequate defence.

Originally published as Hobart man Matthew John Davey who set his girlfriend on fire loses appeal