Alawa domestic violence stabbing victim named as convicted rapist Ethan Anzac

A man killed in an alleged domestic violence murder in Darwin has been named, alongside revelations he was an abusive rapist.

Ethan Anzac who was allegedly stabbed to death by his partner Maria Jimmy. Picture: Facebook

A man killed in an alleged domestic violence murder over the weekend has been named, alongside revelations he was an abusive rapist.

Maria Jimmy, 31, faced the Darwin Local Court on Monday charged with stabbing her 33-year-old partner, whom The Australian has identified as Ethan Anzac.

It was alleged Ms Jimmy, who had no prior criminal history, stabbed Anzac in both legs at an Alawa home on the night of February 28.

He was found unconscious and in a critical condition, and later died in hospital.

According to The Australian, Anzac was in breach of a domestic violence order at the time of his death, which restricted him from going near Ms Jimmy while drunk, or causing any harm to her.

NT Supreme Court sentencing remarks revealed Anzac was previously sentenced to six years in prison without parole for the brutal rape of a woman in 2014 – a “violent, cowardly attack” for which he did “not express any remorse”.

The court heard Anzac repeatedly punched the “small defenceless” woman in the head and face, raping her for what she claimed was an hour, while she bled profusely.

He took her to the shower and had started to wash her when her 12-year-old son arrived at the home and heard her cries for help.

NT Police investigate a suspected domestic violence homicide after a 31-year-old woman allegedly fatally stabbed her 33-year-old partner and a 51-year-old woman at a home in Alawa on Friday, February 28. Picture: Zizi Averill

The boy tried to break-in with a shovel, and the woman was eventually able to escape the home.

At the time of that rape, Anzac was five months into a two-year suspended sentence for two separate attacks on the same victim.

In 2012 he attacked her while drunk, knocking her over, kicking her in the back, breaking and dislocating her arm.

In 2013, he pulled her out of a car and onto a large rock, punching her in the stomach and yelling abuse at her.

In sentencing for the rape, Justice Graham Hiley found Anzac’s prospects of rehabilitation to be “poor at this stage”.

He said that the judge presiding over the 2012 and 2013 incidents had given Anzac “the benefit of the doubt and felt that you had reasonably good prospects”

“But unfortunately your offending on this occasion has shown his optimism to be ill-founded,” Justice Hiley said at the time.

The court heard Anzac was born in Brisbane, grew up at Pigeon Hole Outstation where his father worked as a stockman, and completed year 12 at Kormilda College in Darwin.

He moved to a remote community after school where there were no or limited job opportunities, and fell into a cycle of drinking alcohol from about the age of 19.

Anzac was most recently in court on January 17 this year, when he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and three counts of contravening a DVO.

Ms Jimmy was charged with one count of murder and one count of aggravated assault. She remains in custody and is due to return to court next month.

Originally published as Alawa domestic violence stabbing victim named as convicted rapist Ethan Anzac