A court has dismissed an appeal against the “manifestly inadequate” sentence given to a man who bludgeoned his partner to death in Footscray.
Isac Ayoul Daing broke into the apartment of former partner Maryanne Sikai on March 18, 2014 and beat her “to a pulp” with a piece of wood.
He pleaded guilty to murder in the Supreme Court in February 2015 and was jailed for 18 and a half years with a non-parole period of 14 and a half.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the sentence, claiming it was manifestly inadequate and the sentencing judge erred in finding Daing had shown a “modest amount” of remorse.
The DPP argued the judge had failed to regard the sustained brutality of the attack on a defenceless woman and gave too much emphasis to Daing’s difficult past in Sudan and diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder.
Justices Priest, Maxwell and Weinberg rejected the appeal in the Victoria Court of Appeal last week.
Justice Phillip Priest said in his judgement that the sentencing judge took every relevant factor bearing on remorse into account in finding “evidence of some modest remorse”.
“That finding was, with respect, unassailable,” Justice Priest said. “There was some evidence of remorse but it was limited.”
He found the sentence “undoubtedly lenient” but not manifestly inadequate.
“The sentence must be seen as at the lower end of the available range. But it was within range,” he said.
