Extensive criminal history of man accused of stabbing partner to death in remote Northern Territory community

A man alleged to have fatally stabbed his wife to death in the Northern Territory on Monday had a violent criminal history, including multiple attacks on women.

The NT man arrested after allegedly stabbing his partner to death. Picture - Supplied

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A man alleged to have fatally stabbed his wife to death in the Northern Territory had a violent history against women and in 2018 kicked his wife in the face and used a ‘nulla nulla’ to fracture her legs, resulting in her being flown to hospital.

On Monday the 46-year-old man was arrested by police after allegedly stabbing his long-term partner in a remote Indigenous community on the edge of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory. He has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1995 with a history of multiple attacks against women.

Police say the man, who has not yet been charged, was assaulted by ‘unknown community members’ as part of a ‘reprisal’ following his alleged attack on the woman, who has become the seventh person in the Top End to be killed in an alleged domestic related incident since the start of June.

Court documents obtained by The Australian reveal his partner - who he had previously seriously assaulted - told the Northern Territory Supreme Court how she was scared of him, and feared she would be hurt by him again.

He had been released from custody in April this year following an 18 month stint in jail after being convicted of aggravated assault against the woman he has now been arrested for allegedly stabbing to death.

In a separate criminal case, he was sentenced to an 18 month non parole in prison in March 2019 - despite the maximum sentence available being 14 years - after pleading guilty to beating his partner with a ‘nulla nulla’ - an Aboriginal club or hunting stick used as a weapon or tool for hunting - fracturing both legs. A nulla nulla is often made from the timber of very hard trees and is just as hard as steel, averaging about 3.5cm thick 1.5m long.

The woman had previously told the NT Supreme Court she was scared of her alleged killer. Picture: Supplied

The woman had to be flown to Darwin, where she was hospitalised for six days. In a victim impact statement she said she was scared of her partner, and worried about returning to their community fearing she would be hurt again.

Despite a significant criminal history ranging from aggravated assaults to theft, criminal damage, unlawful entry, breaching bail and driving offences and multiple assaults on women, he was sentenced to a non-parole period of 18 months jail, just six months more than the minimum required by legislation.

In 2008 he was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment for assault on a female; a month’s imprisonment in 2011 for the same offence; and 12 months in 2014 for the same offence.

“It seems that none of those penalties and none of those times in prison has caused you to stop offending,” acting-NT Supreme Court Justice Trevor Riley said in his sentencing remarks. “The present offending constitutes an escalation or an increase in seriousness of the criminal conduct of yourself in relation to others.”

“Given your history of offending, your conduct while you were drunk and the circumstances of the present offending, I assess your prospects for rehabilitation as being poor to moderate.

“Somehow the message must be heard that it is conduct which is completely unacceptable.

NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst in April. Picture: Alex Treacy

That message, as the Crown prosecutor has indicated, does not seem to be getting through,” Justice Riley said.

After the man was released on parole in November 2019, it was less than a year before he appeared in court on another aggravated assault and breach of domestic violence order charge, where he was again sentenced to three months jail for the aggravated assault charge and seven days for contravening a DVO.

His most recent arrest has raised further questions surrounding weak sentencing for violent offending against women in the Territory, after The Australian revealed last month another man - with a three decade history of assaulting women - was sentenced to less than one-third of the maximum sentence by the Northern Territory’s chief justice after cutting through his partner’s achilles tendon, and is now also charged with murdering his previous victim.

That man, who cannot be named, was earlier this year charged with the murder of that victim.

Now, the man arrested this week is in custody with police preparing yet another report for the coroner as an alleged domestic homicide, with five children left without their mother and their father in police custody waiting to be charged with murder.

NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said alcohol was a contributing factor in the seven alleged domestic violence related deaths since June 1.

“The tragedy is mounting, and that tragedy is one that the Northern Territory cannot ignore,” Wurst said on Tuesday.

“We know that these incidents are observed by others, observed by children, and the impact of this violence on our community is untold.

“We wonder why we have young people on our streets who are committing crime and terrorising the community at times, part of that has to be linked back to domestic violence,” he said.

“We all need to do better. Northern Territory, police needs to do better. The community needs to do better. We all need to come together to make sure violence is not the answer, and I’m not standing in front of you in the near future reporting another domestic homicide.

“This has to stop.”