A delusional, jealous husband who violently killed his "devoted and loving" wife in their home will be detained for up to 12 years.
Samar Shlemoon, 42, was stabbed three times in the chest after being strangled by her 60-year-old husband Alam Al-Qas Soomo in their Sydney home in November 2020.
Her death came nine days after the unemployed alcoholic threatened his wife in bed with a knife and then belted his daughters when they came to their mother's aid.
Despite the killer's psychotic belief of infidelity, all the evidence pointed to Ms Shlemoon being a "devoted and loving wife and mother", NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Campbell said.
"She was a religious woman and leaving aside a case of innocent flirtation in 2017, there was not anything (amounting to infidelity)," he said.
During the couple's 25-year marriage, the "jealous, controlling and physically abusive" Al-Qas Soomo repeatedly attacked his wife and humiliated her "in vile ways".
The Iraqi Christian couple and their children arrived in Australia in 2019 having fled their homeland 16 years earlier.
Arrested shortly after the homicide, Al-Qas Soomo did not face trial or answer a charge of murder due to a mental illness affecting his capacity to instruct lawyers or engage in the trial process.
In a special verdict, the judge found that illness - a psychotic disorder characterised by delusions that his wife was unfaithful - would have also reduced his criminality from murder to manslaughter.
But Justice Campbell was satisfied Al-Qas Soomo knew killing his wife and abusing his children was wrong.
Only the day before the homicide, the father discussed the need to change his abusive behaviour with his eldest daughter.
On Wednesday Justice Campbell set a 12-year aggregate term for the homicide and earlier assaults, indicating it was what Al-Qas Soomo would have received as a sentence if convicted following a proper trial.
In effect, it sets the maximum term he can be held in custody without a court granting a further extension on community safety grounds.
Al-Qas Soomo's prospects for conditional release will be reviewed at regular intervals.
His mental illness appears well controlled in custody but, lacking any sign of remorse, his prospects of full rehabilitation were deemed uncertain, the judge said.
At an earlier hearing, Soneevia Al-Qas Soomo told the court she had long been fearful of her father because he was violent.
"I know this man doesn't regret what he did," she said, in a statement read to the court by a relative, as her mother's killer watched from the dock.
Her sister Sonia described her mother as the "most wonderful woman" and revealed "his family keep saying it's our fault" she died.
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