Daisy Jinjair tells of desperate fight to save her sister from knife-wielding murderer Warren Dhamarrandji

Daisy Jinjair put her own life at risk in a desperate bid to save her little sister from a murderous domestic abuser, saying ‘all I wanted to do was protect her’. Read her powerful statement.

When Daisy Jinjair saw what Warren Dhamarrandji had done to her beloved little sister, she did not hesitate to rush to her defence:

“All I wanted to do was protect her — We were very scared when he was chasing us, my little sister was very, very scared,” she told the Supreme Court in a victim impact statement on Monday.

“I tried to get him away from her.”

But despite Daisy’s heroic efforts, Dhamarrandji would continue his ferocious, frenzied attack on the defenceless woman, stabbing her nine times until his blade finally pierced her heart.

Dhamarrandji was found guilty by a jury last week of murdering the 20-year-old, who cannot be named for cultural reasons, at the Jingili Water Gardens in March 2020.

“I came to Darwin to take my little sister home with me because she was very sad and scared of Warren because he was always bashing her,” Daisy said in her statement.

“I was worried for her because I didn’t want him to hurt her anymore.”

Daisy said she was “angry at him” after “seeing him hurt my sister” and “just wanted him to leave her alone”.

“I helped her and we were running and scared,” she said.

“(But) he caught up to her.”

Daisy said she was “very sad for a long time” and angry with Dhamarrandji for taking her sister away.

“I will never see my sister again,” she said.

“I will never watch her smile again.

“I miss her very much and get sad whenever I think of her and angry at him because he murdered my little sister for nothing.”

The girls’ mother Lucia Jinjair said she wasn’t exactly sure what sentence should be imposed but asked Justice John Burns to “put him in jail for a long time”.

Warren Dhamarrandji faces a mandatory life sentence after being found guilty of his partner’s murder.

“I wanted her to come home and be happy and smiling again,” she said.

“He took her off us. He is not good, he is a bad man. My daughter should never have met him.”

In his submissions, Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC told Justice Burns the offending was “objectively very serious”.

“The circumstances of it in broad daylight with Daisy there putting her life at risk to try and assist her sister and with the public looking on, puts it in that category,” he said.

“The attack was frenzied and extremely serious and horrendous offending.”

But Mr Babb said despite the seriousness of the offending, Dhamarrandji’s intellectual impairment “mitigates the moral culpability” and the Crown was not calling for any longer than the mandatory 20-year minimum non-parole period.

Defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC said while “it might not make any difference”, if not for mandatory sentencing, Dhamarrandji’s “significant” impairments would have warranted less than a life sentence.

He returns to court for sentencing on April 3.

Originally published as Daisy Jinjair tells of desperate fight to save her sister from knife-wielding murderer Warren Dhamarrandji