Luke Hanif Sekkouah pleaded guilty in the WA Supreme Court to Erica Hay's murder in Perth's southern suburbs in April 2024. The 37-year-old was sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 24 years.
The sentencing marks another grim milestone in Australia's escalating domestic violence crisis. What unfolded in that Perth home represents the extreme end of a pattern well-established in the research: the intersection of methamphetamine dependence and intimate partner violence. There was a clear dose-response increase in violent behaviour when participants were using methamphetamine compared to when they were not using the drug, with frequent methamphetamine use increasing the odds of violent behaviour tenfold.
Sekkouah stabbed Ms Hay in the head, neck and body, piercing her heart, liver and lungs, in a "sustained, relentless and brutal" attack, Justice Natalie Whitby said. The assault left Hay with 23 injuries. What followed was calculated: Sekkouah, a methylamphetamine user, left the house and bought a six-pack of beer from a nearby liquor store. He then stole a bottle of turpentine from an IGA supermarket and returned to the home. In the early hours of the next morning, he poured it on Hay and some furniture and ignited it.
One of Ms Hay's daughters was in the home during the attack and might have seen her dead mother lying on the floor, the court was told. The child survived with smoke inhalation; her mother did not.
Sekkouah constructed an implausible defence. He told police he was sleeping in the house when it filled with smoke and he ran out after grabbing Ms Hay's daughter. Detectives became suspicious when they learned Sekkouah had not suffered from smoke inhalation and saw Ms Hay's 23 injuries. The evidence was overwhelming, yet Sekkouah initially fought the murder charge before pleading guilty on the opening day of trial. Justice Whitby was scathing of Sekkouah's apology letter, saying his "sustained and deceptive conduct demonstrated a lack of remorse".
The case sits within a troubling national landscape. Family and domestic violence claimed 175 lives in 2024, representing 39% of all homicides recorded across Australia. Female victims predominated in domestic violence homicides, with 99 women and girls killed in family violence contexts, compared to 76 male victims. That death toll, accumulated over a single year, represents the failure of prevention systems designed to protect the vulnerable.
Sekkouah's methamphetamine use was a documented factor in the case. The court heard Sekkouah suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and lacked the skills to manage relationships. He drank alcohol and used cannabis daily. But research suggests his drug use was more than context; it was a driver. Methamphetamine dependence is associated with high rates of domestic violence. Studies examining the pharmacology are clear: The relationship between methamphetamine use and violent behaviour was largely independent of psychotic symptoms, suggesting a direct causal relationship between the drug and violent behaviour.
The victim's friend expressed the anger that families of murdered women carry into courtrooms. Ms Hay's childhood friend, Amanda Broad, said she hoped Sekkouah "rots in hell" and he should not have been given a non-parole period. "I just want my friend back and I'm never going to get her back," she said, crying.
What emerges from cases like this is not a simple story of a defective individual, but rather a system that fails repeatedly. Sekkouah's prior history of PTSD, his documented substance dependencies, his relationship instability were all markers that could have triggered intervention. Yet Hay died in an attack preceded by an argument over drugs, money and another woman. She was defenceless against his violence, as Justice Whitby noted. The question Australia must confront is why so many women remain vulnerable to exactly this scenario.