‘Sheer terror’: 44 years for strangling new partner
Miklos Bolza |
A cruel domestic violence killer who boasted of his crimes to another inmate will spend decades behind bars for strangling his new partner and desecrating her body.
Paul Jason Sultana, 35, was in an unsettled relationship with 28-year-old Dayna Isaac before tying two electrical cords around her throat and murdering her in January 2023.
“The offender ignored the deceased’s pleas to stop and persisted in his cruel attack on her, which made her last moments full of pain and fear,” NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling said when sentencing Sultana on Friday.
“Sheer terror is an appropriate description.”
The judge sentenced Sultana to a maximum sentence of 44 years for the crime, with a non-parole period of 33 years.
Sultana was taken out of court in a stretcher in September after being found guilty of the murder and stabbing himself in the left arm.
Ms Isaac’s murder followed a brief relationship in which Sultana could not accept that she did not want something more long-term.
He took red rope and tape and cycled to her Penrith home in western Sydney, waiting for her to return on the day of the murder.
Once she let him inside, he shoved her into a wall before dragging her to the bedroom area and then strangled her.
Police later found the woman’s body, with her trousers and underwear pulled down.
Forensic testing later revealed Sultana’s DNA on Ms Isaac’s groin area.
Arrested and placed on remand the day after the murder, Sultana later boasted about his crimes to another inmate.
The premeditation, persistent assaults and the degradation of Ms Isaac’s body after the murder were all aggravating factors which increased the prison sentence, Justice Garling said.
Sultana had been convicted over a number of violent offences since 2016 and spent significant stints in prison since that time, the judge noted.
While the 35-year-old had been diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest, the court was shown no evidence this contributed to the murder.
Justice Garling called intimate domestic partner violence a scourge in a civilised society.
Sultana’s conduct had to be denounced completely, he said.
“There is simply no place at all in our community for conduct of this kind. It must be marked with significant disapprobation.”
At trial, the 35-year-old denied murdering his partner, saying that he was asleep on the couch and that an unknown third party must have been involved.
Justice Garling rejected this when finding him guilty.
After the murder, Sultana took Ms Isaac’s RAV4 to a remote area of bushland, setting it on fire and destroying it.
Sultana will be eligible for parole in January 2056.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491
AAP
