NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA - A woman in her fifties has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after killing her husband, dismembering him and disposing of his remains in large garbage bins across several suburbs.
The wife, 55-year-old Nirmeen Noufl, appeared by video in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday, August 26, and pleaded not guilty to murdering her husband, 62-year-old Mamdouh Noufl, but guilty to manslaughter in the alternative, PEOPLE reported, citing several media outlets in Australia.
Prosecutors accepted the plea, and Justice Peter Hamill formally entered a manslaughter conviction. The judge said the murder charge "essentially lapses" following the prosecution's acceptance of the plea. Nirmeen Noufl is scheduled to appear in court on September 14 for her sentencing hearing.
According to an agreed statement of facts tendered in court, the exact circumstances of Mamdouh's death remain unclear, in part because his remains have never been recovered.
Court documents describe a 32-year marriage marked by domestic violence and infidelity. Mamdouh was described as controlling and strict, and many of the alleged incidents of domestic violence went unreported. During a trip to Egypt in 2022, Mamdouh began a relationship with another woman.
Shortly before his death, he told his wife that he intended to return to Egypt and marry the woman but refused Nirmeen's request for a divorce. Nirmeen later gave two psychiatrists an account of what happened after Mamdouh returned to their Greenacre home on May 2, 2023. Prosecutors accepted that they could not disprove her version of events.
Nirmeen said the couple began arguing and that Mamdouh assaulted her as she tried to escape from room to room. She said he eventually pinned her to the kitchen floor and began choking her.
"Believing that her life was in danger, she reached for a nearby tool, associated with the renovation, and stabbed her husband once to the left side of the chest,” the agreed facts state. “He died quickly as a result of that injury." Prosecutors accepted the manslaughter plea because they could not negate the partial defense of self-defense.
A witness who saw Nirmeen the following day observed a cut on her forehead, a bleeding lip and swelling near her jaw. Between May 4 and May 5, Nirmeen dismembered her husband's body and placed his remains in garbage bags.
The witness saw a blood-covered tarp and pieces of a dismantled circular saw inside the home. The witness subsequently helped Nirmeen clean the scene with bleach and dispose of bags containing Mamdouh's remains in bins in Bexley and Chullora. In the following days, Nirmeen arranged to have portions of the home renovated, including its flooring and kitchen benchtop.
She also sent messages from Mamdouh's phone to make it appear that he was still alive and denied knowing what had happened to him when police visited. Nirmeen later told a confidante that the killing happened "in the moment" during a fight.
"All my life I have dedicated to the kids and him, and he just treated me like s—. Spat at me,” she said, according to the documents. “I had enough." She also expressed remorse, saying, "I’m sorry and I regret it but I genuinely believe it didn’t happen and I don’t know how I did it."
Friends reported Mamdouh missing in July 2023, approximately two months after his death. Police initially opened a missing-person investigation before deeming his disappearance suspicious and establishing Strike Force Tannerie. Nirmeen was arrested at a Bankstown hospital on October 3, 2024, and charged with domestic-violence murder the following day.
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