A woman who lied to police several times to cover up the murder and dismemberment of her abusive husband will spend a further 12 months in prison.
Nirmin Noufle was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty in August to killing her husband Mamdou in excessive self-defence when she was strangled and attacked in their Sydney home.
The 55-year-old has been in custody since her arrest in October 2024, when she was initially charged with murder before prosecutors admitted a plea to a lesser charge.
Crown prosecutor Mark Hay told the court that the disposal of Mamdou Nouflah’s body meant the 55-year-old’s version of events should be accepted and a murder charge could not be laid.
An extremely traumatic childhood followed by severe domestic violence mitigated the seriousness of the killing, but the dismemberment was essential to the case, the judge said.
“The disposal of the body in this case was as thorough as it was brutal,” Judge Peter Hamill said Friday.
“Behaviour following the killing is remarkable and frightening… and also relates to issues such as remorse.”
A key factor in her sentencing was the long history of abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, culminating in the attack she said she suffered when she stabbed her husband.
“This was a deeply abusive relationship involving violence, psychological manipulation and coercive control,” the judge said.
Nufl wiped away tears in court as Hamill outlined the circumstances of extreme violence and abuse in her childhood and marriage.
The judge noted that Mamdou Nufla’s family members would likely be disappointed by the verdict.
“I hope you understand … there will seem to be a chasm between the loss you have suffered forever and the sentence I impose,” the judge said.
According to the agreed facts, Mamdouh Nufl was of conservative Islamic views and controlled his wife and daughters.
Just days before his death at their Greenacre home, he told his wife that a few months earlier he had met the woman he planned to marry in Egypt. But he rejected Nufl’s request for a divorce.
Later that day, when he returned home, they argued and he attacked her, choking her and pinning her to the ground, Nufl later told psychiatrists.
“My whole life… he just treated me like crap, spat on me,” the 55-year-old told a confidant after the murder. “I’ve had enough.”
Nufl dismembered her husband’s body with a saw and dumped it in a series of rubbish bags in Sydney’s south-west.
His body was never found, and her claim that she only stabbed him in the chest once could not be verified.
One of Nufla’s daughters told the court she would immediately end her life overseas and remain in Australia to help her mother attend psychiatric appointments when she is released.
“If she were released tomorrow, I would cancel my flight,” said the daughter, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The 55-year-old will be eligible for parole in October 2027.
