Lithgow man convicted of beating girlfriend to death with hammer
‘Possessive’ friend gets nearly 20 years in prison for brutally beating his girlfriend to death by smashing her head in with a ‘hammer and wooden plank’
- Man Who Killed His Girlfriend Gets Nearly 20 Years In Prison
- Rodney Dempsey hit Jenoa Sutton with a hammer
- Attacked triggered by his fear of losing his children
A man who killed his ex-partner for fear of losing his children has been sentenced to nearly two decades in prison for an ‘extreme case of domestic violence’.
Rodney Dempsey, 53, pleaded guilty last month to the murder of 27-year-old Jenoa Sutton, whose body was found in the bathroom of her home in Lithgow, west of Sydney, on March 8, 2012.
The couple had two young children together during their on-again, off-again relationship before officially splitting in 2011.
Justice Peter Hamill said their relationship was fraught but never physically violent until the day Dempsey killed Ms Sutton.
“Mr Dempsey was possessive, regularly drunk and often verbally insulted Mrs Sutton, but he had not been physically assaulted until the day of the murder,” he told the NSW High Court on Friday.
Rodney Dempsey (pictured), 53, will spend nearly 20 years behind bars for brutally beating his girlfriend Jenoa Sutton to death with a hammer and wooden plank at her home in Lithgow in 2012
Dempsey used a rectangular object, possibly a piece of wood, to punch Jean Sutton (pictured) and delivered a “ferocious” blow to the back of her head with an object that may have been a hammer
Although Judge Hamill did not believe the murder was planned, he was convinced that Dempsey had formed the intent to kill her and was motivated by “his love for his children and the fear of losing them.”
Justice Hamill called it an “extreme case of domestic violence” before sentencing Dempsey to 19 years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of 14 years and six months.
Dempsey used a rectangular object, possibly a piece of wood, to hit her, inflicting a “ferocious” blow to the back of her head with an object that may have been a hammer.
The hit caused a depressed skull fracture and embedded 10 skull fragments in her brain.
Dempsey showed no emotion as the judge delivered the verdict, while Ms Sutton’s family wept.
He is eligible for parole in 2034.
The hit caused a depressed skull fracture and embedded 10 skull fragments in her brain