{"id":559421,"date":"2026-03-23T17:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559421\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:22:13","slug":"man-who-killed-partner-nikkita-azzopardi-found-dead-in-melbourne-jail-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559421\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who killed partner Nikkita Azzopardi found dead in Melbourne jail cell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grieving family of a Melbourne woman who was bashed to death say they felt relieved when they learned her killer died in a Melbourne jail over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Joel Micallef, 34, used an iron fire stoker to brutally attack his partner Nikkita Azzopardi in 2024, but was found not guilty last year<\/a> due to mental impairment.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joel Micallef has been found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Remand Centre. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Micallef was being held at the Metropolitan Remand Centre (MRC) and was set to be transferred to the Thomas Embling secure mental health facility when his body was discovered on Sunday morning in his single cell.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Corrections Victoria confirmed the death of a 34-year-old man at the MRC.<\/p>\n

“All deaths in custody are reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria, which formally determines the cause of death,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

\"Nikkita<\/p>\n

Edward Azzopardi, pictured last December, believes his daughter’s killer got what he deserved. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Ms Azzopardi’s family learned of Micallef’s death today.<\/p>\n

“I think karma got to him now,” Ms Azzopardi’s father Edward told ABC News.<\/p>\n

After last year’s not guilty ruling, Ms Azzopardi’s brother Shaun said the family were concerned that Micallef could have been released into the community in the future.<\/p>\n

“I feel quite relieved \u2026 He can’t hurt anybody else,” Shaun Azzopardi<\/a> said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Nikkita's<\/p>\n

Shaun Azzopardi, pictured outside court last December. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In December, a Supreme Court judge found Micallef not guilty after hearing evidence he was in the grips of an “acute psychosis” when he attacked Ms Azzopardi in October 2024 at her South Morang home.<\/p>\n

“There is no question that he intended to kill her and cause her serious injury,” Justice Amanda Fox said in December.<\/p>\n

“However, the accused was seriously psychiatrically unwell \u2026 at the time he killed Ms Azzopardi.”<\/p>\n

The family say they were dismayed a jury did not get to hear evidence in the case and decide whether Micallef was guilty of murder.<\/p>\n

They believe systematic failures occurred in the lead-up to Ms Azzopardi’s death and that red flags about Micallef’s mental health were missed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Micallef was awaiting a transfer to Thomas Embling Hospital. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Those issues could be explored at an upcoming coronial inquest into the incident.<\/p>\n

Edward Azzopardi said his daughter was the “rock” of the family.<\/p>\n

“She always thought of the good things in people,” he said.<\/p>\n

Added Shaun Azzopardi:, “Nikki was a very positive and optimistic person and she’d light up any room.”<\/p>\n

“She was a people person, a very confident person.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grieving family of a Melbourne woman who was bashed to death say they felt relieved when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,10851,2732,276073,276075,44,276074],"class_list":["post-559421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dead","tag-jail","tag-joel-micallef","tag-metropolitan-remand-centre","tag-news","tag-nikkita-azzopardi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}