In short:
Family members of a young woman who was held down and stabbed for dating a man of a different faith have been sentenced for their roles in the incident outside Sefton Plaza Shopping Centre.
The 21-year-old woman suffered internal injuries when her father repeatedly stabbed her in the abdomen with a large kitchen knife in November 2021.
What’s next?
The woman’s parents and older brother will serve time in custody while another brother, her sister and brother-in-law were each given suspended sentences.
The parents and older brother of an Adelaide woman who was held down and stabbed for dating a man of a different faith have been sentenced to jail for their involvement in the attack.
The 21-year-old woman — whose identity is suppressed — suffered significant internal injuries after being stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen with a large kitchen knife by her father at the Sefton Plaza Shopping Centre car park in November 2021.
The court previously heard her traditional Pashtun Muslim family disapproved of her relationship with a Christian man and worked together to track her down in the lead-up to the stabbing.
The crime had previously been described in court as an “attempted honour killing”.
In the Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Sandi McDonald said the victim’s mother and sister held her down as her father stabbed her, before she was driven to the family home by her eldest brother and put into the shower, where she bled profusely.
“It is a particularly egregious feature of this offending that having seen [the victim] repeatedly stabbed by a knife, neither her brother, her sister nor her mother did anything to assist her, protect her or comfort her,” she said.
“Each family member made their own decision to be part of the plan to [make the victim] return home.
“To [the victim], these were not just criminal offences but the deepest form of betrayal by almost every one of her close family members.”
The victim’s father, mother, brother, sister and brother-in-law were all originally charged with serious offences including attempted murder.
The father instead pleaded guilty to an aggravated charge of causing serious harm with intent, while four other family members pleaded guilty to aggravated charges of causing harm with intent and false imprisonment.
Behaviour must be ‘publicly denounced’
On Monday, Justice McDonald sentenced the father to 14 years and three months in jail, with a non-parole period of nine years, labelling his offending “reprehensible”.
“You displayed a complete disregard for the law and for your daughter’s most basic human rights,” Justice McDonald told him.
“There is a need for your behaviour to be publicly denounced as completely unacceptable … and a message sent to other members of your and similar cultural backgrounds who might be so moved to act.”
The victim’s eldest brother was sentenced to nine years and five months with a non-parole period of six years, which was backdated to his initial arrest in November 2021.
Justice McDonald sentenced the mother to five years and five months, with a non-parole period of three years and two months, telling the court her role in the offending was “pivotal”.
“Your conduct set the wheels in motion that led up to a plan to physically manhandle your daughter into a car and abduct her in a public place in broad daylight,” she said.
“One would have expected the ordinary maternal reaction would have been to protect your daughter … you appeared remarkably calm, you did not seem particularly concerned about her.”
The sister and brother-in-law had their prison sentences suspended and instead entered into good behaviour bonds.
The younger brother — who was not involved in the stabbing but helped track down the victim in the weeks prior — also received a suspended sentence on the condition of a good behaviour bond.
