Sydney woman sentenced after pleading guilty to husband's manslaughter

Nirmeen Noufl has received a six-year-three-month sentence, including a minimum three-year non-parole period, for killing and dismembering her husband in 2023. Prosecutors accepted her manslaughter plea on the basis of excessive self-defence, while the judge cited the disposal of the remains as a disturbing feature of the case.

Nirmeen Noufl has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison for the manslaughter of her husband, Mamdouh Noufl, whose remains have not been found. The Supreme Court of New South Wales imposed a non-parole period of three years, meaning Noufl will be eligible for parole in October next year because she has been in custody since her arrest.

Noufl, 55, pleaded guilty to manslaughter shortly before a murder trial was due to begin. According to ABC News Australia, prosecutors accepted the lesser charge on the basis that the killing amounted to excessive self-defence rather than murder.

The agreed facts state that an argument between the couple became physical in May 2023. Noufl told psychiatrists she had been assaulted, pinned to the kitchen floor and choked before she reached for a renovation tool and stabbed her husband, believing her life was in danger.

She later dismembered his body and, with help from a witness, placed the remains in garbage bags and disposed of them in rubbish bins around south-west Sydney. The witness observed parts of a large circular saw and blood-stained plastic at the house in the days after the killing. Mamdouh Noufl, 62, was reported missing in July 2023, and police arrested his wife in October the following year after searching the couple’s Greenacre home.

Justice Peter Hamill said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Noufl intended to kill her husband. He nevertheless described what happened after the killing as “remarkable and chilling”, saying it was relevant to remorse, rehabilitation and future dangerousness. He said the minimum term would provide a period of supervision to support her reintegration if she were released.

The judge also found that Noufl’s history of childhood dysfunction and domestic violence was relevant to sentencing. Court material described the marriage as involving violence, manipulation and coercive control, while relatives of Mamdouh Noufl spoke about their grief and said the absence of remains left them without a resting place to visit.