Northern Territory government to review Sentencing Act following string of alleged DV murders
The NT government will review the Sentencing Act following a string of alleged DV murders, as The Australian reveals a horrific case of DV in Alice Springs in the daylight.
It’s just past 2pm on Thursday in Alice Springs and a woman is lying on the grass in front of the Town Council Chambers. Standing over the woman, her partner – with a string of convictions and jail time for violent offending – is physically assaulting her.
The all-too-familiar scene played out as the Northern Territory government announced it would review the Sentencing Act after The Australian revealed a string of murders in the Territory were allegedly committed by men with violent criminal histories who could have still been in custody had they received lengthier sentences.
In the violent episode, captured on video last week, the man grabs his 44-year-old partner as she cowers in fear. Several witnesses ignore the woman’s plight, apparently desensitised to what they are seeing.
No one comes to the woman’s aid until one passer-by steps in to confront the attacker.
“Oi, get off her,” the bystander yells in video obtained by The Australian.
The perpetrator walks away, and the good Samaritan gives the woman some water – an act of kindness that appears to infuriate her partner.
“Who the f..k are you?” he yells repeatedly as he approaches the man in a menacing manner.
“Back up and f..k off, you f..k off, that’s my f..king wife,” he says.
“I’m giving her water,” the man replies.
“I want to f..king punch you right now,” the assailant tells him.
Shortly after, the man is tackled to the ground by police and taken to the lockup for a night. The following day he is released by a NT Local Court Judge on a three-month suspended sentence, with a six-month good behaviour bond.
It’s another line item in a crowded rap-sheet, after he was sentenced to six months in prison in 2023 for aggravated assault, breaching a domestic violence order. In the past few years he has racked up multiple convictions for aggravated assault and breaching a DVO, for which he spent time in jail and served a good behaviour bond.
The Australian has previously reported on Territory men with violent criminal histories who had been given lenient sentences only to go on and allegedly murder their partners.
Earlier this month, a 46-year-old man was arrested after allegedly fatally stabbing his wife to death, with this masthead revealing he had a violent history against women and in 2018 kicked his wife in the face and used a nulla nulla – a wooden club – to fracture her legs, resulting in her being flown to hospital.
The man, who has still not yet been charged, was alleged to have stabbed 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.
The Australian also revealed last month a “cold blooded deviant” cut through his partner’s achilles tendon after a three decade history of assaulting women had been charged with murder after being released from prison less than a year ago.
Those two are in a group of five women who have been murdered in the Territory since June. Another male and a trans person bring the number of people who have been allegedly killed in domestic violence situations to seven.
Another man before the courts, who allegedly killed a male relative, was already before the courts on a breached DVO charge, and serving a 12-month good behaviour bond for being armed with an offensive weapon.
NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby told The Australian she would be reviewing the Sentencing Act following The Australian’s reporting into the extensive criminal histories of alleged murderers.
“As Attorney-General, I will be reviewing the Sentencing Act to ensure we have the strongest possible framework to address domestic violence offenders,” Ms Boothby said.
“These shocking cases highlight how much of a scourge domestic violence is in the Northern Territory.
“While sentencing offenders is the responsibility of the courts, the government – like all Territorians – expects judges to make decisions that prioritise the protection of victims and the wider community.
“At the same time, the community rightly expects that convicted perpetrators of violent crimes receive penalties that reflect the seriousness of their actions.
“Unlike Labor who removed mandatory sentencing for DV assaults, the CLP will put the rights of victims above the rights of the offenders.”
NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said earlier this month alcohol was a contributing factor in the seven alleged domestic violence related deaths since June 1.
“The tragedy is mounting,” he said. “We know that incidents are observed by others, by children, and the impact of this violence on our community is untold.”
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