Territory artist jailed
Man cut his partner’s breast and arm with a machete
A Top End artist who comes from a renowned family of creatives cut his partner’s breast and arm deeply with a machete, then casually invited her outside for a cigarette, a court has heard.
Gunbalanya man Titus Nganjmirra, who was aged 41 at the time of the offending, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory to a count of unlawfully causing serious harm.
The court heard Nganjmirra and his partner of two-anda-half years were drinking at their local social club on the evening of April 4 last year when Nganjmirra “became angry” for an unknown reason. Back home, he fetched a 50cm machete with a taped handle and began “verbally abusing” his partner in the kitchen.
He pushed her hard into the wall, causing her to hit her head and crumple to the floor.
“She got back up to her feet and was obviously and, unsurprisingly, very scared of you. She did not want to make you any angrier,” Justice Trevor Riley said.
Nganjmirra then struck her to the chest in an overhand motion with the machete.
“The machete sliced through her shirt and bra and caused a deep laceration to her left breast,” Justice Riley said.
She tried to shield herself with her arms but received a laceration to her left forearm, and felt “significant pain” and was bleeding.
The court heard Nganjmirra did not offer to help her, but instead asked her to go outside for a smoke.
“She came with you because she was very scared of you, but when she got outside, she ran away,” Justice Riley said.
Nganjmirra was arrested the next day.
The woman was treated at the local health clinic, revealing a cut 9.5cm long and 3cm wide, and deep enough to expose “underlying fat tissue”.
Justice Riley told the court Nganjmirra had 10 previous convictions for assaulting women, and had been jailed previously as a result.
While Nganjmirra had completed an eight-week rehabilitation program behind bars – in a bid to address his alcoholism – and expressed a desire to continue his rehabilitation once released, weighing against him was his criminal history and lack of contemporaneous remorse.
However, Justice Riley concluded he was not without prospects for rehabilitation.
He noted Nganjmirra, who had been an artist for three decades, had a good work history as an artist, and was “respected” for his cultural knowledge and “artistic practice in ceremonial items”.
He is employed by Injalak Arts Centre and, in 2019, won the Telstra Emerging Artist Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for his work, ‘Queen Elizabeth 2019’.
His brothers Lawrence and Jabis are both artists, while Nganjmirra’s late mother, Clara ( nee Djorlom) was a weaver.
Justice Riley sentenced Nganjmirra to three years’ imprisonment, backdated to April 5, 2023, the day he was arrested and remanded in presentence custody.
He will be eligible for parole in October, after serving 18 months.