The Northern Territory's Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal against the sentence imposed on a West Arnhem Land man who fatally stabbed his wife on the Darwin Esplanade three years ago.
Dennis Naroldol, then aged 56, stabbed his 51-year-old wife in the heart following an altercation outside Darwin's DoubleTree Hilton on April 14, 2023.
The woman, who is not being publicly identified without her family's permission, managed to walk into the hotel before later dying in hospital.
Naroldol was initially charged with murder but, in April this year, was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court to four years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
In a statement, the DPP confirmed it had appealed the sentence, first reported in April.
"The Director of Public Prosecutions has filed an appeal against Mr Naroldol's sentence," a DPP spokesman said.
"As the matter is now before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further."
With time served, Naroldol is eligible for parole, although it is unclear whether he has been released into the community. The parole board does not comment on which prisoners are released.
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During sentencing, Justice Stephen Southwood said Naroldol had a "long history" of domestic violence offences against his wife.
He said Naroldol "showed no concern for the victim, walking away into the park and lying down" after stabbing her with a knife he had earlier hidden in his shorts.
Justice Southwood also noted Naroldol had chronically abused alcohol for a decade before his wife's death, breached multiple court orders and was convicted of assault in 2020.
The Northern Territory continues to record the highest rate of domestic violence in Australia, with Aboriginal women accounting for 89 per cent of all victims.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, at least 476 First Nations women have been killed since 1989, with one-third of those deaths occurring in the Northern Territory.
Following the sentencing, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price criticised the operation of the Territory's tougher sentencing laws.
"This case exposes the gap between the government's promise and the way the law still operates in practice," she said.
"Their changes were sold as a crackdown, but they only addressed murder. They did not address the cases that are ultimately resolved as manslaughter rather than murder, even where the victim has been killed by an intimate partner."
Senator Price argued Territorians deserved laws and sentencing that reflect the gravity of serious offending and protect victims.
"As I have said before, stronger sentencing must operate alongside better evidence capture, victim notification, high-risk offender management and parole settings that put safety first," she said.
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