Warning: This story contains graphic content. Indigenous readers are advised this story contains the name and images of a deceased person.
A Perth man due to be sentenced for the violent murder of his partner in 2023 has had his hearing delayed by his legal team who has suggested the judge deciding his fate may be perceived as biased.
Supreme Court Justice Natalie Whitby, the wife of WA Police Minister Reece Whitby, heard for the first time ahead of the sentencing of Peter Damjanovic on Thursday that an issue had been raised about her presiding over his case.
Damjanovic pleaded guilty to the horrific death of Tiffany Woodley at her Bedford home, admitting that he bashed her repeatedly in the head with a towel rail.
Her injuries were so severe they were deemed too extreme for a jury to be exposed to after the 39-year-old initially pleaded not guilty to her murder. He changed his plea on the day the trial was due to begin in October last year.
On Thursday, over two years after her death, Woodley’s family gathered at the Supreme Court of Western Australia building to watch her murderer pay the price for taking her life, but have instead been left waiting for his sentencing to begin.
Damjanovic’s lawyer, Simon Freitag, told the court ahead of the hearing that he wanted to raise an issue that began with a proposed victim impact statement from a woman who called herself Woodley’s aunt, but who wasn’t biologically related.
“She is an advocate of domestic violence,” he said.
“And was part of a public campaign in 2025 that we say leads to an apprehension of bias issue [because] the police minister attended a number of those rallies and through his own social media has promoted those rallies and the scourge of domestic violence.
“We don’t take any issues with that, the difficulty is that Mr Damjanovic comes to be sentenced for domestic violence, but Your Honour is a private citizen as well, and you are married to the police minister.”
Freitag said that while the police minister’s involvement was part of “an entirely worthy cause and a worthy campaign” that it has now left Damjanovic feeling that “he wouldn’t be getting a fair approach from the court in that situation”.
Freitag continued that while he accepted there was no “active bias” against his client, that it was “a matter of perception” of Her Honour’s involvement that he felt should lead to her recusing herself from the hearing.
State prosecutors have indicated they would be opposing the application, but have asked for an adjournment of the sentencing while they consider the request.
Follow the break, Justice Whitby dismissed the application, saying her husband was one of many who attended the 16 Days in WA rally, and that there was no suggestion he had had any involvement in the case, or with the domestic violence advocate mentioned.
“My husband’s participation in a large public march is not a basis that gives rise to any apprehended bias,” she said.
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