Amirah Droudis sentenced to 33 years for murdering Man Haron Monis’ ex-wife

THE girlfriend of Man Haron Monis has been sentenced to at least 33 years in jail for murdering the Lindt Cafe siege gunman’s ex-wife in a frenzied stabbing attack.

• Amirah Droudis found guilty of murder
• Man Monis ‘mastermind’ of ex-wife’s murder

THE girlfriend of Man Haron Monis has been sentenced to at least 33 years in jail for murdering the Lindt Cafe siege gunman’s ex-wife at his request.

Amirah Droudis, now 37, did not react when she was sentenced to 44 years in jail (with a non-parole period of 33 years) for what Justice Peter Johnson described as the “savage” murder of the mother-of-two who was stabbed 18 times, then set on fire, following a bitter custody dispute with Monis.

The 44-year sentence was just shy of the Crown’s request that she spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Amirah Droudis and Man Haron Monis in 2013.

The mother of the victim, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, smiled and wept as the sentence was read out.

Outside the court, family friend Sonia told the media: “I am overjoyed. We are very, very happy”.

Upon sentencing Justice Johnson said Droudis had “demonstrated a preparedness to act in a variety of extraordinary ways at the request of Monis” and he said the Iranian-born Lindt Cafe siege terrorist was an “evil man” who had “exploited what life offered to him in Australia and he used persons with whom he came into contact”.

He said Droudis knew that “killing (the woman) would deprive two young boys of their mother and two parents of their only child”.

Family friend Sonia said she was overjoyed with the sentence. Picture: John Grainger

Monis and his ex-wife.

Droudis murdered the 30-year-old mother in the hallway of Monis’ Werrington apartment block on April 21, 2013, when she went to pick up her two children following a custody visit with their father.

Monis was also charged over the woman’s death but he was shot dead at the climax to the Martin Place siege after he held 18 people hostage in the Lindt Cafe on December 16, 2014.

Following the judge-alone trial, Justice Johnson ruled that Monis had recruited Droudis to murder his wife after he lost custody of his children following a family court decision in 2012.

Droudis met Monis in 2006 and quickly began a relationship with the womaniser.

The apartment complex in Werrington where Monis’ ex-wife was murdered.

The stairwell outside the apartment.

At one stage Monis was in a relationship with Droudis, the victim and a third woman all at the same time.

Justice Johnson determined Droudis had been “enthralled” by the self-styled clairvoyant and spiritual healer.

He determined she was motivated to murder the woman so she could live with Monis, his sons and her own daughter as a single family.

Archive image of Amirah Droudis.

Droudis and Monis days before the stabbing murder. Picture: NSW Supreme Court

The trial heard dramatic evidence from a neighbour who witnessed the murder through the peephole of his front door.

He said he saw a chubby woman dressed in Islamic clothes stabbing the victim in a frenzied attack.

When he opened his front door the attacker screamed at him with rage: “No you go back in there,” before she set the victim on fire and fled.

At the same time Monis was at Penrith where he tried to create an alibi by crashing his car into a police vehicle directly outside the station.

Monis in hospital on the day his ex-wife was murdered.

The trial had heard Monis had previously attempted to become a Rebel bikie in his quest to find someone to murder his wife.

The bikies, however, thought Monis was so weird they suspected he was a police plant.

Justice Johnson said Droudis had been a law-abiding citizen before meeting Monis, but under his influence she converted to Islam, along with her young daughter, and took on his extremist views.

In September 2013, months after the murder, Droudis was convicted of “aiding and abetting” Monis who sent offensive letters to relatives of dead Australian soldiers.

Justice Johnson also noted that Droudis filmed her mother giving Monis a “grovelling apology” for giving a statement to police in relation to the murder.

“That the offender was prepared to assist Monis in this way to the detriment of her own sick mother ... shows she was willing to act at his behest.”

TIMELINE

• 2006: Amirah Droudis meets Man Haron Monis, also known as Sheik Haron, through his spiritual healing and clairvoyant business.
• 2007: Monis starts sending offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.
• 2011: Monis accused of sending the offensive letters while Droudis is accused of aiding and abetting him. They are charged because the letters - which criticised Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan - were seen to “menace, harass or cause offence”. Separately Monis is charged with stalking and intimidating his ex-wife and pleads not guilty.
• 2013 April: The body of Monis’ ex-wife is found in a stairwell of a Werrington apartment block.
• 2013 September: Monis is sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for 12 counts of using a postal service to cause offence. Droudis is sentenced to a two-year bond for aiding and abetting him. November - Droudis is charged with murdering Monis’s partner and is refused bail. Monis is charged with being an accessory before and after the fact and also refused bail.
• 2013 December: Monis is granted strict conditional bail.
• 2014 April Monis appears in Kogarah Local Court charged with sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of indecent assault relating to incidents in 2002 where he touched a woman’s breasts and painted liquid on her while working as a “spiritual healer”.
• 2014 May: He’s granted bail on the condition of daily reporting just six days after new bail laws take effect.
• 2014 (December 12): Monis appears before the High Court for an unsuccessful application to have his conviction for sending the threatening letters overturned.
• 2014 (December 15) Monis takes 17 hostages in Sydney CBD’s Lindt cafe. The 16-hour siege leaves him and two hostages dead.
• 2014 (December 22) Droudis’ bail is revoked.
• 2015 October - Droudis pleads not guilty to murdering Monis’ ex-wife. 2016 August - Droudis’ judge-alone trial opens at the NSW Supreme Court. November - Droudis is found guilty of murder.
• 2017 February - Justice Peter Johnson sentences Droudis to 44 years in jail with a non-parole period of 33 years. With time already served in custody she’ll be eligible for parole in December 2047.

Justice Johnson said he accepted that Droudis was “deeply affected by Monis”.

“At all times, however, the offender was a mature adult and there is no evidence of any psychiatric or psychological impediment to her capacity to exercise free will in choosing her associations with persons, let alone the acts which she would commit,” he said.

He also said it was difficult to understand why Droudis had maintained her Muslim faith in jail when it was Monis who had converted her and persuaded her to adopt his “vile and extreme propaganda”.

“It might be thought that the offender’s experience with her Muslim faith was something of a poisoned chalice, associated as it is with criminality in conjunction with Monis,” he said.