Herron Nawirridj, 30, jailed by Supreme Court of the NT for violent domestic violence assaults

A man with seven prior convictions for violent assaults has continued to offend, this time committing two serious, protracted assaults on his partner that left her fearing for her life.

Domestic violence offender Herron Nawirridj, 30. Picture: Facebook

A Northern Territory man with seven prior convictions for violent assaults has continued to offend, this time committing two serious, protracted assaults on his partner that left her fearing for her life.

Herron Nawirridj, 30, who the court heard lived variously between Darwin, Gunbalanya, Maningrida and Oenpelli, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory to five offences.

They included aggravated assault, two counts of recklessly endangering serious harm, choking, and damaging property.

The aggravated assault occurred at Gunbalanya on June 15 last year, Justice Meredith Day Huntingford told Nawirridj’s sentencing hearing last month.

Nawirridj and his partner were arguing on the street at about 10.20am when he grabbed her, resulting in punches being exchanged.

The woman kicked Nawirridj in the head a number of times and struck him with a wire axle from a wheelie bin, before the pair was separated.

Justice Meredith Day Huntingford, Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. Picture: Supplied

They walked separately down the street, but Nawirridj armed himself with a large animal bone, found her, and clubbed her over the head, causing her to bleed, the court heard.

Nawirridj was arrested.

The second assault on the woman occurred in the early hours of October 17 last year at Smith Street fast food favourite, Uncle Sam’s, in Darwin.

The evening prior, the pair were drunk together in the city and began arguing over jealousy issues.

Nawirridj followed the woman to Uncle Sam’s after she tried to leave and then he forced his way through the glass door that his partner had been trying to hold shut.

In Justice Huntingford’s words, Nawirridj then “thumped her over the back with a closed fist,” grabbed her by the hair and “dragged” her outside the cafe, forced her over into a bent position, and choked her for approximately 28 seconds.

The woman lost consciousness and Nawirridj manipulated her into a standing position then let her go, so she collapsed forcefully on the ground.

A short while later, once the woman regained consciousness, Nawirridj continued assaulting her inside Uncle Sam’s, with the cafe losing $100 worth of food as the defendant began throwing trays all around the shop.

Nawirridj has been remanded in custody since the second assault.

Justice Huntingford told the court Nawirridj, who has a four-year-old daughter, had seven convictions for assault since 2016.

Three of the assaults, committed between November 2019 and February 2020, were against the same victim as the current offending.

Nawirridj had served time for some of the assaults.

Justice Huntingford told the court the defendant grew up in circumstances of “significant deprivation”.

His father normalised alcohol abuse and violence for Nawirridj growing up, the defendant began sniffing petrol, drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis from a young age, and he dropped out of high school at the age of 15.

His mother passed away the year prior, when Nawirridj was 14, and a psychologist had assessed him as “likely” having some degree of neurological damage.

Justice Huntingford sentenced Nawirridj to four years and 10 months’ imprisonment, backdated to October 17 last year.

Nawirridj will need to serve three years before he is eligible to apply for parole.