Ex-footballer jailed for nine-year minimum term after attacking former partner
Former Hawthorn and Melbourne Storm footballer Shem Tatupu, 30, sentenced to 12 years and two months for the attack.
Former Hawthorn and Melbourne Storm footballer Shem Tatupu, 30, was sentenced to 12 years and two months with a nine-year non-parole period. After his partner moved in, he controlled her: forbidding contact at the gym, demanding she quit her dental nursing job, and requiring she abandon social media.
When she ended the relationship, he attacked her for nine hours on May 19, 2025, punching and strangling her before stabbing her four times in the back of the head with an 18.5-centimetre knife. The knife tip remains embedded in her skull.
During the assault he told her: "I let her get away, but not you," referring to a previous girlfriend. She survived by pretending to be dead.
Justice James Elliott said Tatupu had deliberately isolated the victim, who feared for her life.
- 12 years and 2 months
- Sentence length
- 9 years minimum
- Non-parole period
- May 19, 2025
- Attack date
- 18.5 centimetres
- Knife length
Why it mattersThe case demonstrates how coercive control escalates to severe violence and how Australian courts treat intimate partner violence.
AustraliaThe Victorian court sentencing reflects how Australian law punishes domestic violence and coercive control, affirming that courts impose substantial sentences for such crimes.
Corroborated bythenightly.com.au
