R v Fredes [2020] NSWSC 1332

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Fredes [2020] NSWSC 1332 Hearing dates: 7 September 2020 Decision date: 01 October 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Hidden AJ Decision: Offender sentenced to imprisonment for 17 years and 3 months, NPP 13 years, from 11 October 2018. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – sentence – murder – plea of guilty – domestic violence – single stab wound – intent to inflict GBH – isolated incident – psychological effects of offender's background of physical and sexual abuse as a child - remorse Category: Principal judgment Parties: Regina (Crown) James Fredes (Offender) Representation: Counsel: Mr S Hughes (Crown) Ms F Jowett (Offender)

Solicitors: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Aspire Law Group (Offender) File Number(s): 2018/310753 Publication restriction: Nil

REASONS FOR SENTENCE 1. The offender, James Fredes, has been committed to this court for sentence for the murder of his partner, Erana Nahu, in the early hours of Thursday, 11 October 2018 at a house at Glenfield where they were living.

Facts 1. There is a detailed statement of facts, which I shall summarise. 2. The deceased, Ms Nahu was 43 years old at the time, and the offender was 58. They had been in a domestic relationship for about 15 years. They had two children, who were 7 and 8 years old at the time of the offence. 3. The relationship broke down in early 2013, and Ms Nahu moved to the Glenfield home with the two children. For the next four years the offender lived elsewhere, and would see the children only occasionally. 4. Some time around 2014 or 2015, Potaua Roberts, a cousin of Ms Nahu, moved into the Glenfield home. At the end of 2016, Ms Nahu told Ms Roberts that she was seeing a man called Rob. She said that around that time she had told the offender about the relationship. A few weeks later, towards the end of January 2017, the offender self harmed and was admitted to hospital for several days. 5. About two weeks later, Ms Nahu allowed him to move in to the house at Glenfield. There were three bedrooms. The offender moved into one of them, Ms Roberts slept in another, and the third bedroom was occupied by Ms Nahu and the children. 6. In the early evening of Tuesday, 9 October 2018, Ms Roberts received a text from Ms Nahu which said, "I told Jamie [the offender] I been seeing the same guy he went in the room and quiet". The following evening, Ms Roberts discussed the text with Ms Nahu. Ms Nahu said, "I ended up telling Jamie about Rob". She added that one of the children had gone into the offender's room and had seen him crying.