A Thai international student has been jailed for 23 years for murdering his girlfriend in a savage and prolonged attack in their home in Albion Park, New South Wales.
Natthawut Tammajanta, 29, who came to Australia to study at age 21 but still speaks “very limited English” eight years later, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Wollongong on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the December 2022 murder.
Manthana “Nancy” Khantharat, 37, died of blunt head trauma from Tammajanta’s 45-minute attack which was so brutal it left him with lacerated, bruised and swollen hands.
She had also been choked, a chunk of her hair was torn out, and she defensive wound fractures to both forearms and broken ribs. Her blood was found splattered on walls, doors and furniture across two levels of their townhouse unit.
Tammajanta, who worked at a Thai restaurant with Ms Khantharat, lied in a police interview, claiming his hands were injured at work, denied choking her, and said: “I didn’t think I used that much force”.
Justice Natalie Adams found that the “motive” for the attack was alcohol-fuelled jealously and insecurity and “an ill-founded belief that by serving customers in the restaurant [Ms Khantharat] was somehow being unfaithful”.
She sentenced Tammajanta to 23 years and four months’ imprisonment with a 16 year and 4 month non-parole period backdated to his arrest on December 18, 2022.
The non-parole period was reduced from 75% to just under 70% because Justice Adams decided Tammajanta’s time in custody would be more onerous due to his poor English.
“I am satisfied that the offender has and will suffer harsher custodial conditions than the average inmate due to the fact that he speaks only limited English and is isolated in custody,” she said.
She also found that Tammajanta had not shown any genuine remorse, and that during court proceedings he “at no point expressed any love or respect for his partner”.
Tammajanta’s immigration status is unclear from sentencing documents, but as Ms Adams noted that he “found study difficult” and was “restricted to ‘cash’ jobs” when his visa expired, it appears that he was living in Australia illegally.
He will likely be deported upon completion of his sentence.
