Former Hawthorn and NRL player Shem Tatupu jailed for horror assault on former partner, latest news

A former elite athlete will spend nine years in prison for a brutal and protracted beating and stabbing inflicted on an ex-partner.

Shem Tatupu, 30, was sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court this week to more than 12 years in prison with a non-parole period of nine years for the nine-hour ordeal he inflicted on a woman in southeast Melbourne last year.

Tatupu pleaded guilty to non-fatal strangulation, causing serious injury intentionally and common assault after he was charged following the attack, which ended with the woman being stabbed in the head, where the knife tip remains embedded today.

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Justice James Elliott described the woman’s reading of her victim impact statement as strong and courageous.

“Flanked by her mother and father, she explained at length the devastating effect your violence has had on her life,” Justice Elliot said in a written sentencing.

“She has a permanent reminder of your offending, with the metal knife tip still embedded in her skull. But worse still, she has the emotional scars and instability from which she still suffers some 18 months after your offending.”

The court was told Tatupu was controlling of the woman when they dated, forbidding her from speaking to people and telling her to delete her social media and become a “traditional” partner.

The woman moved into the home Tatupu shared with his mother, but shortly after, in May, she tried to dump him over his controlling behaviour.

As she was packing her belongings into the car, Tatupu unleashed a “horrific” nine-hour ordeal, Justice Elliot said.

The woman was dragged, beaten, choked, and forced to sit “captive” in a bedroom with only a bra on.

Earlier in life, Tatupu was in the rookie squads of the Hawthorn AFL side and the Melbourne Storm rugby league side, standing about 2 metres tall and, in May 2025, weighing about 160kg, the judge said.

He arrived at the Hawks as a rookie draftee in 2013, and was delisted three years later without managing a senior appearance.

Speaking about an ex-partner of his, Tatupu at one point told the woman, “I let her get away, but not you”.

Late in the afternoon, when his mother came home, Tatupu eventually allowed the woman to use the bathroom, and after being dragged back toward the bathroom, she managed to break out through the front door as Tatupu’s mother told her to run.

She made it to a neighbour’s open garage, but Tatupu had grabbed a kitchen knife.

“You’re going to kill her, oh my God, she doesn’t deserve this,” his mother said while on the phone to triple-0.

Tatupu chased her, shoved her to the ground and held the knife to her neck.

When police arrived, the mother was trying to shield the younger woman, but Tatupu stabbed her four times in the back of the head.

He was then pepper-sprayed and arrested.

One of the police on the scene “struggles severely with both her immediate physical reaction to your brutality, and her ongoing role as a police officer despite it having been a lifelong dream for her to serve in that role”, the judge said.

The victim-survivor’s mother, father, brother and sister also told the court of their lasting pain over the incident.

The court was told Tatupu “sustained physical and mental abuse at times for a number of years” when his international rugby-playing father Tony Tatupu would return home to New Zealand.

His parents split up when he was 14, and at 18 he moved to Melbourne to pursue a sporting career, though injuries hampered that.

Two months before the attack, Tatupu was sentenced to a community corrections order for assaulting a former partner. That attack happened while he was on bail for an alleged unlawful assault at a football match, the court was told.

The court was given “a significant number of character references”, Justice Elliot said.

“Somewhat in contrast to some other evidence adduced, they spoke of the loving and supportive environment in which you grew up.

“Amongst other things, you are described as gentle, caring and respectful, with a real ability to connect with children and people more generally. You continue to receive strong family love and support.”

The judge ruled Tatupu showed minimal remorse and likely still falsely believed the woman had been cheating on him.

Justice Elliot imposed a sentence of 12 years and two months, with a minimum of nine years.

He will likely be deported to New Zealand, where his father still lives, when he is released.