A man repeatedly threatened to torture and kill his partner in a series of “appalling” messages before she disappeared – with her body not found until years later.
Toby Loughnane told the girlfriend he would later murder, Maryam Hamka, he would shoot her, drown her, set her on fire and slice off her face.
Loughnane said he would make Hamka “scream in agony”, and sent messages to her friends asking them to “tell Maryam she’s dead.”
The Melbourne man was last week sentenced to 28 years’ prison after being found guilty by a jury that heard the menacing texts he sent to Hamka in the lead-up to her death in April 2021.
Loughton, an ice and GHB addict, had claimed his girlfriend died from an overdose – but this was rejected by the jury.
“I will beat you beyond recognition, within two inches of your life,” Loughnane, now 45, wrote in March 2021.
“I’m going to cut your f***ing head off, you better hope the cops come, for your sake. I’m going to literally kill you.”
Victoria’s Supreme Court heard on Friday that Hamka, 37, likely died on the morning of April 11, 2021, after screams and sobs were heard echoing from Loughnane’s Brighton unit.
Loughnane cleaned his apartment and drove Hamka’s body 50 miles to Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula on April 15, sending messages to her phone to pretend he believed she was still alive.
He had also sent texts from her phone in an effort to fool friends.
Then 41, he was arrested the following day after his partner was reported missing and police arrived at the unit to an “overpowering” smell of cleaning products, the court heard.
Loughnane has been in custody ever since but did not reveal the location of Hamka’s body until May 2023, and she was not found until August of that year.
Justice Christopher Beale told the court on sentencing Loughnane that Hamka’s skeleton had fractures to her right eye, nasal bones and right side of the jaw.
“An important circumstance of your offence is that you murdered Ms Hamka in the context of long-term domestic violence: the fatal violence you inflicted on her on (April 11, 2021) was not an isolated incident,” Justice Beale said.
The judge recounted several shocking attacks Hamka was subjected to in the months before her death, as told by witnesses who testified in Loughnane’s 2024 trial.
Wendy Ithier was working at Coles Brighton on July 9, 2020 when the distressed Hamka came in with swollen eyes, lips, injuries to her wrists and a bleeding nose.
“Ms Hamka told (Ms Ithier) that her boyfriend had bashed her, put his fingers down her throat and a sock in her mouth: she said she thought she was going to die,” Justice Beale said.
Another witness told the jury she saw Loughton throw a phone charger and a small ladder at Hamka in February 2021, before the man “punched and kicked Ms Hamka in the head and face and back”.
On March 6, 2021, Loughnane came armed with a knife to the Hamka family home and cornered his partner in a bathroom before locking the door.
Hamka’s sister Hanna told the jury that her boyfriend broke the door down with a bat to rescue the besieged woman.
Justice Beale accepted arguments from prosecutors that Hamka’s death was not the result of “an isolated burst of violence” but came amid ongoing domestic abuse.
The court was told about 11:35 p.m. on April 10, 2021, when both Loughnane and Hamka had taken drugs, he took a “demeaning video” of his victim in which he mocked her for taking too much “juice” or GHB.
A former friend let himself into Loughnane’s unit about 1:15 p.m. the next day and found blood on the floor and Hamka sitting upright and naked in the shower.
Neither she nor a passed our Loughnane responded to his attempts to rouse them and he felt.
On April 12, 2021, the friend returned and was told by Loughnane Hamka died from an overdose.
“Did you hit her?” the friend asked, before suggesting they call an ambulance.
“I can’t, I can’t, I’ll get done for manslaughter,” Loughnane replied.
Justice Beale remarked it was “callous” for Loughnane to suggest in a police interview Hamka’s family were not helping to find her, when he had in fact hidden her remains.
Loughnane borrowed his friend’s car to dump Hamka’s body an hour’s drive away and only revealed its location after the former mate agreed to give evidence against him.
The judge sentenced the ex-concreter Loughnane, who the court heard continues to maintain his innocence, to at least 20 years non-parole.
“I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that you are truly remorseful, as opposed to being sorry for yourself and those close to you who have had to bear the shame and disgrace of your actions,” Justice Beale said.
Hamka’s brother Hassan told reporters outside court on Friday the family was happy with the sentence: “But the justice will never bring Maryam back.”
With time served Loughnane would not be released until 2041.
