Clifford Arthur Neumann sentenced for murder of Victoria Stewart

The family of murder victim Victoria Stewart have delivered a powerful message about the domestic violence scourge ripping through Australia, pleading with potential offenders to “get help” if they feel themselves overwhelmed with emotion.

Douglas Jones, the brother of Ms Stewart, made the desperate call speaking outside the South Australian Supreme Court on Wednesday after Ms Stewart’s killer Clifford Neumann was sentenced for her premeditated murder on November 19 last year.

The court was told Ms Stewart and Neumann had struck up a friendship some 15 years earlier after meeting at a church congregation and had later formed a relationship.

But Neumann grew increasingly paranoid about her partnership with another man.

Mr Jones said there was “always another way” other than violence.

“There’s always another way, there always is,” he said.

“People are going to feel how they feel but there are other ways to get through those kinds of things.

“If you’re feeling that way, get help. Go speak to somebody that maybe can help you through the things you are feeling at the time.”

Justice Laura Stein, in delivering her sentencing remarks, said Neumann attacked Ms Stewart with a steel rod in a “brutal and frenzied” manner at his house.

“For the sake of Ms Stewart’s family members … I will not describe what you told police you did to Ms Stewart, or the details of the pathology report, or the scene that police later observed in the loungeroom,” she said.

“The evidence establishes that you attacked Ms Stewart with ferocity. Ms Stewart remained stationary during the attack and received multiple impacts”.

Ms Stewart, 39, was a mother to five children aged between two and 21.

Justice Stein said Neumann had caused them “unimaginable profound suffering”.

“Their overwhelming pain will be with them for the rest of their lives,” she said.

The court was told Neumann abused alcohol, cannabis and steroids and he had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and autism.

But Justice Stein emphasised Neumann’s mental health challenges had not impacted his ability to understand his actions and he had acted while in a “rational state of mind”.

“Your conduct remains unfathomable and incomprehensible,” she said.

“You did not kill Ms Stewart on the spur of the moment. Once you formed the intention to kill Ms Stewart, you created a plan and took steps to carry out your plan.”

After the murder, Neumann drank alcohol and then dialled triple-0 and confessed to the crime.

He was employed as a disability support worker for eight years and also developed an obsession with bodybuilding as a teenager.

South Australian law demands a mandatory life sentence for murder and a minimum non-parole period of 20 years, but Justice Stein said Neumann’s gruesome murder warranted a higher non-parole punishment.

“You carried out the attack on a defenceless woman who could do nothing to fend you off,” she said.

“Deliberate murder of a person in a relationship context is abhorrent and deserving of the greatest level of denunciation.”

Justice Stein sentenced Neumann to a non-parole period of 27 years, reduced to 22 years for his guilty plea discount.

Ms Stewart’s daughter Tara Songer said the sentence was “never going to be enough”.

“This sentence was never going to be enough, no matter how high or low, the pain and suffering that me, my siblings, my family, my mother’s friends … have all encountered, it was never going to be enough to justify that pain,” she said.

“My mum was the most fantastic woman you could ever meet.

“She was creative, friendly, kind, funny … I miss her a lot, I miss her more every day.

“I’m accomplishing stuff in my life that I always wanted to tell her … stuff she finds so cool and interesting, but I can never tell her.”