The recent murder of 32 year old Sydney Dentist, Dr. Preethi Reddy is an ongoing investigation that has left the Nation with unanswered questions. The most prominent questions to be discussed are: was Preethi Reddy a victim of Femicide and if so, how can the Courts convict the accused to serve justice if the suspected accused is deceased?
FACTS
Preethi Reddy was murdered by being stabbed multiple times. Her body was later dumped in a suitcase in the back of her car in a Sydney suburb. Her death immediately circulated online and touched the heart of many. It is described to be a rare and abnormal case. The reasons for her death in still unknown however, her former boyfriend, Harsh Narde, who was also a Dentist, was suspected of murdering Preethi before intentionally killing himself in a fiery car crash in a head on collision with a Trailer on Monday, near Tamworth. To read more about this please click here.
WHAT IS MURDER?
Murder is a crime, defined by law and the society in general and has been described as the most serious offence in the criminal calendar: R v Penisini [2003] NSWSC 892 at [82].
Murder is said to be killing someone with “the intent to kill”. This means that to be convicted for murder, a person must have intended to end the victim’s life at the time that they took the actions that resulted in their death. National Criminal Lawyers ® recently discussed more about this in their link “Tougher laws for Child Killers”
THE LAW
According to austlii, Section 18 of The Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) – murder is taken to have been committed where the act of the accused, or the thing by him or her omitted to be done with reckless indifference to human life, or with intent to kill causing death.
A person is guilty of murder only if all of the elements are present. The elements that the Crown must establish are:
- An act or omission of the accused
- That caused
- The death charged
- Where the act was done or the omission was made with reckless indifference to human life, with intent to kill.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
According to Section 19A when a person is charged with the offence of murder they are liable to be sentenced to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. A person sentenced to imprisonment for life for the crime of murder is to serve that sentence for the term of the person’s natural life.
FEMICIDE
Some reports have opined that Dr Reddy visited Dr Narde’s hotel to make it clear the relationship was over and he then stabbed her multiple times causing her death.
Femicide is the killing of women aged 15 and over. It is overwhelmingly a result of male violence, with approximately 94% of offenders being male. Almost 60% of femicides involved killings by an intimate partner generally, due to general domestic arguments, termination of an intimate relationship and jealousy in the intimate relationship or on the termination of the relationship.
This incident has received a high level of public interest and the public demanded genuine justice for her and all victims of intimate partner violence.
WHAT DO WE KNOW? – A TIME LINE
According to reports, the victim had attended a Dental Conference in St Leonards on Saturday 2, March 2019. The alleged accused also attended this conference. The pair were in an intimate relationship prior to this and reunited on this day. It was alleged that after the pair reunited at the conference, they stayed the night at a hotel. At 2am on 3 March, 2019 the victim was last seen alone at a McDonalds on Market St, Sydney and later walked to the Hotel which she was spending the night. The following day at 11am, she contacted her family informing them that she would have a late breakfast and make her way home to Penrith. This was the last anyone had heard from the victim. As she did not return home her family began concerned and began starting to make enquiries to family, friends and the Police. Her movements after this phone call was unknown however, Dr Narde was reportedly seen getting into Dr Reddy’s car on Sunday outside the Swissotel on Market St in Sydney.
Her body was discovered two days later at 9:30pm on Tuesday 5 March, 2019.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
There will be further investigations about what happened on that night as there are many pieces of the timeline that are yet to be confirmed. The detectives are staying in touch with the community and the family as they work out what happened.