Opinion
Why you won’t find this woman’s name on the list of Australian victims of domestic violence murders
Gary Adshead
JournalistShe was punched 40 times in the head and neck, repeatedly stomped on, choked and hit again before staggering away and dying.
But you won’t find the 24-year-old’s name on the growing list of women killed by their partners, because the West Australian justice system concluded that the Aboriginal woman’s death was not “directly” or “indirectly caused” by the beating she took on December 15, 2022.
CCTV captures Nyaparu’s attacker following her in Perth’s CBD.
Her attacker, Aaron Leyton Wumi, wasn’t charged with manslaughter or murder despite admitting to every prolonged and punishing part of the bashing.
Instead, Wumi eventually pleaded guilty to doing “an act as a result of which the life, health or safety” of his victim “was likely to be endangered”.
His punishment was a four-year jail sentence. It was backdated to the time of his arrest just hours after he delivered such a level of brutality it prompted WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch to describe it as “one of the most violent attacks I’ve ever seen in a public place”.
Wumi was sentenced in the District Court last week. With parole he’ll be a free man by Christmas.
If you’re thinking none of the above seems fathomable at a time when the nation’s leaders from the Prime Minister down have condemned violence against women – and promised to end the cowardly scourge – then you’re not alone.
The family of the victim, who I will refer to by her cultural name of Nyaparu, have been left feeling as though their relative’s life didn’t count.
“This is a black-on-black death,” her brother-in-law Michael told me this week. “They don’t care.”
Michael doesn’t accept how the decision not to lay more serious charges was made.
The post-mortem concluded the level of alcohol found in Nyaparu’s body and her pre-existing heart issue combined to end her life.
Nyaparu died from a heart attack after suffering a sustained beating from her partner in Perth’s CBD in 2022.Credit: WAtoday
“If she didn’t get beaten would she have had a heart attack?” he said on 6PR this week.
“Him chasing her around the city and the assault that occurred caused the heart attack.”
If you’re wondering whether a lack of evidence about the ferocity of the assault was an issue in determining the appropriate charge and resulting sentence handed down to Wumi, the answer is no.
Almost all of what Wumi did was captured on CCTV in Yagan Square and another location between 12.42am and 1.47am that morning.
“You continued to strike the victim to the head and upper body while she was curled protecting herself,” Judge Wendy Hughes said while sentencing Wumi.
“You pulled her to the ground and continued to punch her to the head, face and torso before kicking her to the head and stomping on her head with your foot approximately five times.”
You get the picture. The Judge certainly understood the gravity of what Wumi did.
“The women in your community must be respected,” Judge Hughes said.
“They are not a punching bag for your anger.”
Horrific, but not deadly enough for the system to determine Nyaparu suffered so gravely at the hands of her attacker that it killed her.
The Police Commissioner said for a charge of manslaughter or murder to be laid a post mortem would have to definitively say the death was a result of the assault.
He said the court did have open to it a maximum sentence of 20 years prison attached to the charge Wumi pleaded guilty to, but he stopped short of criticising the much less severe jail term of four years.
Wrapped up with the court’s explanation for the sentence was a cultural consideration that the family of Nyaparu insist must hold true.
Wumi, according to his lawyer, is “almost certain to face tribal punishment, most likely to be organised by the community of Jigalong”.
That struck a chord with Judge Hughes, who said the fact Wumi was prepared to hand himself over upon release for tribal punishment showed remorse on his part.
He was also given a discount of 25 per cent against the final sentence because he pleaded guilty.
“It’s pathetic, it’s weak,” Nyaparu’s brother-in-law said. “And if he gets out in Perth there’s no obligation for him to return to country and receive punishment. He could get another girlfriend, punch her all over again.”
And who is accountable if that happens?
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