Salim Mehajer’s ex-girlfriend breaks her silence after he was found guilty of domestic violence

A woman who was violently beaten and choked until she passed out by her ex-boyfriend Salim Mehajer has broken her silence after the former deputy mayor was found guilty of domestic violence.

Mehajer, 36, had pleaded not guilty to four counts of common assault, deliberate asphyxiation of a person without consent, and assault resulting in actual bodily harm.

The controversial former deputy mayor of Auburn was charged with the crimes two days before Christmas Day in 2020.

After nearly three weeks of trial, it took the jury less than a day on Wednesday afternoon to reach their guilty verdicts.

His victim, who cannot be identified, thanked those who had supported her through her “living nightmare” in an emotional social media post following the verdict.

“Whether you’ve been summoned, supported me from a distance, or you’re just a stranger who sent a message thinking I probably wouldn’t even see it. I saw it. It made a difference,” she wrote.

“I hope other survivors saw this and I hope you feel empowered to find a safe way out.

“I hope other abusers see this and fear that the truth may expose them too.

“Remember, the only people who are angry with the truth are those who live behind a lie.”

She ended by saying she had been fighting on behalf of other victims of separate domestic violence incidents who “didn’t feel safe coming forward.”

Mehajer represented himself at the trial and told the court he intended to appeal the decision. However, he is restricted because he is on remand.

Crown Prosecutor Ken Gilson told the jury that Mehajer had been “charming and kind” when he first met the victim in 2017.

But throughout the relationship, the jury found that Mehajer had “attacks or episodes of anger” in which he threatened to harm his girlfriend, her family or himself.

The victim went to the police in December 2020 and said she had been assaulted four times in two years.

In one of the attacks, the jury was told that Mehajer had hit his girlfriend 10 times on the head during a heated argument in his car, after telling her not to wear jewelry.

The court heard that the woman was lying on a bed in his home in Lidcombe that same month, looking at her phone when the 36-year-old accused her of letting people into his home to steal his belongings.

Mehajer knelt on top of his partner and grabbed her hand so hard that the phone screen cracked and cut her. He then went through her phone.

The jury was told that Mehajer accused his girlfriend of searching Instagram for her ex-boyfriend and trying to meet him.

Mehajer got furious and dragged his girlfriend from the living room to the washroom and pressed her against the wall.

He intimidated her by telling her he would kill her, and threatened to kill her mother by “putting a bullet in her head.”

“Listen, you little bastard, if you ever go to the police, I’ll get you and I’ll get your mother,” the court heard him say to her.

The former politician told his girlfriend that he would ask someone else to follow through on his threats if he went to jail.

The jury was told he inflicted “a dead arm” on the woman in October 2020 when he threw something at her during an argument over water bottles in the fridge.

Mr Gilson said Mehajer committed ‘the most serious of crimes’ when he deliberately suffocated the woman until she lost consciousness.

During his opening speech, Mehajer asked the jury to ‘be patient with him’.

Mehajer questioned his ex-girlfriend’s motivation for making the allegations against him, telling the jury that she went to the police after the pair were accused of fraud. Those charges have been dropped.

“What is being suggested is that the prosecution has taken a dramatic turn in a desperate attempt … to have the fraud charges against her dropped,” he said.

The 36-year-old is due to appear in court in June for a conviction.