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AAP
AAP
National
Tom Wark

Family split on victim's abuse before violent killing

Nirmeen Noufl wept as Justice Hamill outlined her life of extreme violence and abuse. (Rocco Fazzari/AAP PHOTOS)

Two sides of a traumatised family have given emotional, conflicting accounts of how a woman's killing and dismembering of her husband impacted them.

Nirmeen Noufl was jailed for at least three years on Friday, after pleading guilty in August to killing her husband Mamdouh in excessive self-defence while being choked and assaulted.

With time served, the 55-year-old will be eligible for parole in October 2027.

Mamdouh Noufl on missing poster
The judge had warned the sentence would not cover the loss suffered by Mamdouh Noufl's family. (PR IMAGE PHOTO)

She was originally charged with murder before prosecutors accepted an admission to the lesser charge.

Crown prosecutor Mark Hay told the court the disposal of Mr Noufl's body - including chopping up his body and dumping it in rubbish bins - meant a murder charge could not be pursued and his wife's version of events had to be accepted.

During sentencing proceedings, different accounts of Mr Noufl's character emerged from the divided family.

After the sentence was handed down, Mr Noufl's nephew vented fury and frustration and warned his aunt was "gonna be so dangerous to the community".

"(She) should have got f***ing 25 years (to) life in jail," Khaled Noufal told reporters outside the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.

"If it was an accident, if she was not meant to kill him, why did you f***ing dismember his body?"

But six of the couple's eight children gave written evidence about the sustained violent abuse their father exerted on his wife across their 22-year marriage.

"Our family experienced significant turmoil over the years due to the violent actions of my father," one of the children told the court.

"He would slap her, push her and shove her - even when she was pregnant."

Facts agreed by prosecutors and the killer stated Mr Noufl held conservative Islamic views and was controlling of his wife and daughters.

Noufl wiped away tears in court as Justice Peter Hamill outlined the circumstances of extreme violence and abuse in her childhood and marriage that weighed heavily on the sentence he imposed.

"This was a gravely abusive relationship featuring violence, psychological manipulation and coercive control," Justice Hamill said.

Just days before his death in their Greenacre home, he told his wife he met a woman in Egypt months earlier whom he planned to marry.

But he denied Noufl's request for a divorce.

When he returned home later that day, they got into an argument and he assaulted her, choking her as he pinned her to the ground, Noufl later told psychiatrists.

Noufl said it was her final straw and she stabbed him.

"All my life ... he just treated me like shit, spat at me," the 55-year-old told a confidante after the killing.

"I had enough."

An extremely traumatic childhood followed by severe domestic violence mitigated the seriousness of the killing, but the dismemberment was important to the case, the judge said.

Noufl dismembered her husband's body using a saw and disposed of it in multiple garbage bags across southwest Sydney.

His body has never been found.

Forensic police lifting lino
The Noufl home was torn up in the search for evidence of Mamdouh's death and dismemberment. (HANDOUT/New South Wales Police Force)

The killer's claim, after her October 2024 arrest, that she stabbed him only once in the chest could not be tested.

"Disposal of the body in this case was as thorough as it was brutal," Justice Hamill said.

"The conduct after the killing is remarkable and chilling ... and is also relevant to issues such as remorse."

The judge correctly predicted some of Mr Noufl's relatives would be disappointed with the sentence he imposed - six years and nine months, with a minimum of three years.

In a victim impact statement he tendered to the court, Mr Noufal said his uncle was a "shining light".

"He possessed a rare, pure kindness that touched everyone who crossed his path," Mr Noufal's statement said.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Lifeline 13 11 14

Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491

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