Hassan Jabbie: Huge sentence for dad who brutally murdered heavily pregnant lover in claw hammer attack

A serial cheater who murdered his lover in a brutal hammer attack after she refused to abort their baby has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum term of 24 years.

Hassan Jabbie sent Janet Dweh abusive messages in the lead-up to the horrendous crime on the night of October 3, 2021, calling her a “prostitute” and “harlot”.

He told the mother-of-three “I never asked for it” - referring to their unborn child - and admitted to an undercover officer posing as a fellow detainee after his arrest that he killed her in her Dayton home because “the idiot refused” to end the pregnancy.

The 53-year-old father-of-two said he started hitting her “non-stop” then bludgeoned her, describing ending her life as “hard work” that “wasn’t quick”.

Her older brother Darius Dweh found her bloodied and sprawled on her bed the next day.

The 36-year-old registered nurse was struck about the head and face at least 30 times, was eight months pregnant and had just started maternity leave.

Jabbie, a geotechnician, had left his phone at home, parked his car away from Ms Dweh’s property, brought the hammer in a backpack, and wore a cap and donned gloves as he approached.

He knew his arrival was captured on CCTV, so he took the hard drive and buried it along with other incriminating evidence, including the blood-stained weapon, at a vacant lot near his Ellenbrook home.

Jabbie confessed to the covert officer that Ms Dweh had told his wife about the pregnancy, infuriating her.

Supreme Court of WA Justice Joseph McGrath said Ms Dweh was particularly vulnerable, heavily pregnant and alone at home with her children visiting their uncle, and trusting Jabbie when she let him into the property.

“She would not have been expecting you to bludgeon her to death in her own house,” Justice McGrath said on Tuesday.

Justice McGrath said Jabbie, whose criminal history included domestic violence offences, had “no remorse whatsoever” for the murder, continuing to maintain his innocence and accusing other members of the Liberian community at trial.

His wild theories ranged from a hitman to Darius Dweh having an incestuous relationship with his sister.

Ms Dweh was young with a life ahead of her and her vicious murder had an enormous impact on her family, Justice McGrath said.

“You caused immense grief to the family who will have to struggle for the rest of their lives with the loss of the deceased,” he said.

“Three young children will now spend the rest of their lives without their mother.”

There were gasps from the packed public gallery as the sentence was handed down and one of Ms Dweh’s grieving children ran from the courtroom.

Outside, there were tears and some anger, with one woman remarking: “This is s...”

Jabbie’s lawyer had claimed he was psychologically damaged after a traumatic upbringing in civil war-torn Liberia, then witnessing murders fleeing to Guinea and Sierra Leone seeking asylum.