Kidnapped and kept as a slave by her own family, sold off in an arranged marriage and brutally abused by her husband: these are the newly emerged claims surrounding the life of a Sydney woman accused of killing and dismembering her husband with a saw.
Nirmeen Noufl, 54, was refused Supreme Court bail last week over the alleged murder of 62-year-old Mamdouh “Emad” Noufl. She has not entered pleas, but her defence barrister Greg James KC told the court all defences are possible.
Nirmeen Noufl was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband Mamdouh Noufl.Credit:
Noufl was charged with murder in October after checking herself into a mental health hospital, nearly 18 months after her husband was reported missing.
She allegedly killed her husband on May 3 last year, butchering him with kitchen knives and a power saw in their family home at Greenacre in Sydney’s west and disposing of his body parts in residential and commercial bins.
The Crown prosecutor submitted in the bail hearing that Nirmeen Noufl killed her husband to escape an abusive marriage, while the police fact sheet tendered to court alleged she had a “significant financial motive” to murder her husband, who was in a relationship with another woman in Egypt whom he was supporting financially.
Now, hundreds of pages of documents tendered to court reveal the alleged lifetime of torture, violence and abuse that plagued Noufl since she was a child, much of which is too graphic to publish.
The house in Juno Parade, Greenacre, where the alleged murder took place.Credit:
A tale of lifelong abuse
According to Nirmeen Noufl’s sister, Noufl was born in Egypt and her mother left her in the care of Noufl’s grandmother when she was aged three. Her grandmother died in a car crash soon after.
Noufl’s father had earlier migrated to Australia with the hope of saving enough money to bring his family there. After the children’s grandmother died, he brought them to Sydney.
When Noufl was 11, her mother convinced her father to let them visit her at her new home in Syria: a two-week holiday that allegedly turned into seven years of torture.
Noufl’s father believed her mother had bought Noufl and her sister a return ticket home but, instead, her sister said they were kidnapped and Noufl was kept as a slave, made to do all the housework and severely abused “simply for existing”.
“The beatings we experienced in Syria still haunt me … and have affected me forever,” her sister wrote.
Police investigate the alleged murder at the house in Juno Parade, Greenacre.Credit: NSW Police
The sisters were bashed with an electric cord, heavy vases and knives. The most extreme examples of abuse are too gruesome to detail. When Noufl’s father eventually managed to bring her back to Australia as a teenager, she could barely eat or speak and had black teeth.
But in Sydney, they found no reprieve, according to Noufl’s sister. Noufl was only allowed to leave the house to study at TAFE, with her stepmother enrolling in the same course to keep an eye on her.
At the age of 18, with “the life experience of an eight-year-old because she was isolated and barred from contacting anyone”, she was allegedly forced to marry Mamdouh Noufl, a man almost a decade older, who lived in Egypt.
The affidavit states Mamdouh Noufl’s brother knew Nirmeen Noufl’s father and convinced him to order his daughter to sponsor a marriage visa.
“I believe he [their father] sold Nirmeen and it was purely a money deal,” Noufl’s sister wrote, adding the couple had not met or spoken before he moved to Australia.
Her marriage with Mamdouh Noufl was described as extremely abusive. Nirmeen Noufl’s sister said the husband bashed her at her wedding simply for dancing, before destroying any videos or photos of her there. Noufl would write on the walls, labelling her husband the “devil”.
Several of her eight children’s affidavits echoed the picture of abuse.
A new floor was put down at the Juno Parade home, police said.Credit: NSW Police
One child wrote that her mother continually became pregnant in the hope of gaining some reprieve from the abuse, giving birth to eight children within 12 years.
About 18 years ago, Nirmeen Noufl and her children managed to escape Mamdouh Noufl, her sister wrote, finding refuge with a women’s rescue shelter. But with Mamdouh Noufl having financial control over the family, they later returned.
As well as the physical abuse, the children described their father’s threats to kill their mother and constant degrading behaviour, including calling her crazy and ugly, refusing to take photos with her and showing his children photos of a husband dragging his wife with a leash.
Once, she allegedly fled the home to spend days sleeping on the floor of her husband’s empty investment property in Condell Park, barely eating or sleeping and returning dishevelled and depressed.
Police reports detailed domestic violence incidents over years. Nirmeen Noufl wanted a divorce, but for religious and cultural reasons, the husband needed to say a certain word to allow it. The report said Mamdouh Noufl picked up a knife and said, “I would rather see you dead than give you a divorce.”
Noufl’s family members’ affidavits suggested Noufl suffered severe emotional distress from the abuse, often cleaning the house and forgetting she had done so, talking to her husband inside the home when she had seen him leave, and telling her family voices of angels told her things would be OK.
Psychiatric reports tendered to court confirmed psychotic symptoms and Nirmeen Noufl’s self-reporting of much of the trauma described in the affidavits.
Egyptian fiancee, property sales and ‘deceiving messages’
While both the prosecution and defence acknowledged Nirmeen Noufl suffered extreme abuse, the prosecution submitted she was also motivated by financial gain and anger over her husband’s fiancee.
According to the police fact sheet, Mamdouh Noufl travelled to Egypt from August to November 2022 and became engaged to a local woman.
Tensions arose when Nirmeen Noufl found out about this and Mamdouh Noufl said he wanted to continue both relationships.
Mamdouh Noufl sent the woman the equivalent of $15,000-$20,000 “to assist with setting up their new life together in Egypt”.
In April 2023, Mamdouh Noufl sold his investment property in Condell Park for nearly $1.7 million. About the same time, he allegedly told his fiancee in Egypt he would visit her soon and that his wife had requested the married couple take a holiday to a remote area in Australia with no phone reception. He reported suspicions his wife and children were monitoring his social media accounts.
The prosecution alleges that, on May 3, the married couple went to the Egyptian consulate to grant Nirmeen Noufl power of attorney over her husband’s properties in Egypt. Mamdouh Noufl was allegedly murdered during a physical altercation with his wife sometime between returning from a walk with an associate at 9pm and 2am.
Nirmeen Noufl then allegedly placed a plastic sheet on the living room floor and dismembered his body with knifes and an electric drop saw. She allegedly dismantled the saw using a drill, and placed it, along with the body parts, into 20 to 30 bags, which were dumped in bins in Bexley and Chullora.
Over the following days, she allegedly chemically cleaned the crime scene, burnt her husband’s clothes and arranged for the vinyl sheet flooring to be replaced.
Throughout May, attempts by Mamdouh Noufl’s loved ones to contact him were either ignored or responded to by messages they believe were sent by someone else, the facts read.
The police fact sheet outlines messages sent from Mamdouh Noufl’s Facebook account to his apparent Egyptian fiancee, asking her for money.
“Peace be with you. I urgently need money. Of the money you owe, transfer to me 550,000 [Egyptian pounds] ... today and send me picture of the transfer,” the message from Mamdouh Noufl’s account read.
The woman in Egypt responded: “Peace be with you. Please, before I transfer the money, I need you to call me so I can be sure that it is you who is asking for it ... If you cannot call me, you may send a voice recording in which you ask for it”.
After some back-and-forth, the woman sent an image of the “money confirmation”.
On May 23, Nirmeen Noufl allegedly went to Egypt and sold her husband’s apartment.
Police allege she accessed her husband’s bank accounts until July when he was reported missing. At the time, she told police she hadn’t seen him for months and believed he was in Egypt.
“The investigation has captured evidence of the accused’s manipulative and controlling behaviour, including instructing a number of relatives to not assist police with their investigation into the deceased’s disappearance,” the fact sheet read.
During Noufl’s bail hearing, Crown prosecutor William Sit said that describing her alleged conduct as “horrendous and disturbing would be an understatement”.
Mamdouh Noufl’s remains have never been found.
Noufl will return to court on December 11.
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