Court hears dating app strangler should remain behind bars
A woman who strangled a man she met on a dating app should remain locked up for the safety of others, the Supreme Court has heard, after her defence counsel suggested she spend just four years in youth detention.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A woman who strangled her online date during a choke play sex act remains a danger to everyone around her, leaving her locked up in a cell by herself for 23 hours a day.
A three-day pre-sentence hearing in the Supreme Court heard Jamie Lee Dolheguy — who once believed she was a werewolf — had homicidal urges and was under strict management at the state’s women-only prison, Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
When Corrections loosened the leash to allow her to have another inmate to socialise with in the exercise yard, Dolheguy threatened to kill the woman.
“The evidence is crystal clear that Ms Dolheguy is and will remain a significant risk of serious violence against other people,” prosecutor Patrick Bourke told the court.
Mr Bourke said Dolheguy, 20, should serve a significant jail term in an adult facility for the manslaughter of Maulin Rathod, 24, at her Sunbury home on July 23, 2018.
He said defence counsel’s suggestion she spend just four years in youth detention where her rehabilitation would be paramount was “inappropriate” and “outside the range”.
He said Dolheguy would not have the same level of supervision in a youth facility as in an adult jail.
“This is a very serious example of manslaughter,” Mr Bourke said, adding it was “a direct, sustained physical attack” on a “completely innocent victim offering no provocation”.
He said Dolheguy lured Mr Rathod to her home on the promise of sex after meeting him on dating app Plenty of Fish, but had always intended to cause him harm.
Dolheguy killed Mr Rathod by choking him unconscious, he said, and when her arm got sore, she grabbed a vibrator cord and wrapped it tighter around his neck.
He acknowledged her troubled childhood and severe personality disorder, which was described by experts as the worst they had seen, but said they were not mitigatory factors for her actions, as she knew right from wrong.
Forensic psychiatrist Andrew Carroll told the court Dolheguy was happy in the Swan Unit at DPFC but her day-to-day management was complex.
“She’s needed to be kept in very constrained circumstances in order to keep her and other people safe,” Professor Carroll said.
But in doing that, he added, she is robbed of learning valuable skills that will prepare her for the outside world.
He said she speaks of being happy and content at Dame Phyllis and would like to stay there, but has “a long-term fantasy to move to Queensland” if she was ever freed.
Defence lawyer Sharon Lacy said Dolheguy’s youth, rehabilitation and remorse should be considered.
Justice Peter Almond has the difficult task of sentencing Dolheguy, balancing her rehabilitation with protecting the community. He has reserved his decision.