Source : the age
Warning: graphic content
A woman who killed and dismembered her abusive husband, dumping pieces of his corpse in dozens of bins around Sydney, could walk out of prison in just one year.
The verdict enraged a family member, who called out “f— Australia, f— the law, she should be doing 25-to-life” on the steps of the court.
Nirmeen Noufl was on Friday sentenced for manslaughter by Justice Peter Hamill for killing her husband, Mamdouh, in May 2024.
Noufl pleaded guilty after prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that dropped the murder charge for Mamdouh’s death, based on self-defence.
Hamill sentenced Noufl to six years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of three years.
The sentence was backdated to Noufl’s arrest in October 2024, meaning she will be eligible for parole in October 2027.
“It’s a tragic set of circumstances, very difficult on everybody, especially the family,” Noufl’s lawyer Mohamed Bejjaoui said outside court.
“She’s very emotional.”
Bejjaoui said Noufl would return to live with her family upon her release.
Noufl, wearing a blue shroud and white jacket, hunched over and faced away from her children who filled the public gallery to watch the sentence.
She faced towards Hamill, wiping away tears with a tissue, as he described Noufl dismembering her husband with a circular saw in the home, bagging up the pieces and driving around with a confidant known as Witness A to hide the remains.
“The disposal of the body in this case was as thorough as it was brutal,” Hamill said.
“The conduct after the killing was remarkable and chilling.”
It’s not known exactly what happened in Mamdouh’s final moments, but Noufl told psychiatrists her husband had attacked and pinned her to the ground.
Mamdouh was choking her, Noufl said, and she reached for a tool used in the renovations.
She plunged it into her husband’s chest, killing him.
The following week, Noufl organised for a tradesman to replace the kitchen bench and the floors, the bathroom and laundry, and throw out the sofa for council pick-up.
Noufl took control of Mamdouh’s accounts and tried to recover the money he had sent to a woman in Egypt, who he had taken as a lover and given thousands of dollars.
“Send me a voice message with your voice saying that I should transfer the money, so I can send you on Sunday, God willing, because after that I will be busy,” the woman replied.
Noufl and Witness A even went to Egypt, two weeks after the killing, and told Mamdouh’s family he couldn’t see them because he was sick in bed.
It wasn’t until July that Mamdouh’s friend reported him missing. Neither Noufl nor his eight children ever reported his disappearance.
Outside court, Mamdouh’s nephew was enraged by the sentence, screaming at news cameras.
“Look what she did to him, if it was an accident, if she was not meant to kill him, why did you f—ing dismember his body?” he asked.
“She should be doing f—ing 25-to-life.”
The nephew said Noufl had tried to leave her.
Mamdouh’s family had penned emotional statements to the court, saying it was an “unimaginable nightmare” to lose their relative in such a gruesome way.
Mamdouh’s brother, in a letter to the court, said he had no way to mourn him.
“To this day, I do not know where Mamdouh’s grave is,” he said.
“I have nowhere to go to be beside his grave, lay flowers, say a prayer for him and talk to him as people do when they grieve someone they have lost.”
Hamill said Noufl had suffered extreme abuse as a child, lacked parental love and support, and carried mental health problems into adulthood.
In 2024, she checked into a psychiatric ward and was diagnosed with psychotic depression because she was hearing voices telling her to self-harm.
“I am satisfied the offender regrets her actions and wishes she did not kill her husband,” Hamill said.
“She genuinely feels she has let her children down and feels guilt and shame about the impact on her family.”
Hamill found the relationship had been marred by abuse, part of which stemmed from Mamdouh’s conservative Islamic beliefs.
“All my life I have dedicated to the kids and him, and he just treated me like shit. Spat at me,” Noufl confided in a relative after killing her husband.
“I had enough. I have been trying to fight for us to be normal, to ignore the voices in my head.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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