‘Dysfunctional’ life of ex-bikie at centre of horror Perth murder-suicide revealed
The ex-bikie who murdered his former partner before dying by suicide first entered Perth’s drug world as a teenager before finding solace in a bikie gang, court documents reveal.
Luke Noormets, 33, shot dead his long-term partner and mother of his son, Georgia Lyall, 32, inside her South Guildford home on Thursday morning just months after the pair split. He then called triple zero to alert them to the death before setting his Innaloo house on fire and taking his own life.
Luke Noormets killed his long-term partner Georgia Lyall (inset) in a horrifying murder-suicide last week.
Noormets was on parole at the time, having been released from prison in 2022, five years into a seven-year jail term for the “cold-blooded torture” of a drug dealer.
During his sentencing in the Perth District Court for that crime, Noormets’ upbringing and family life was detailed, with Judge Troy Denise Sweeney noting he had been suicidal since he was 10 years old and turned to alcohol and drugs in his adult years to try and numb the negative thoughts.
She also noted Lyall’s unwavering commitment to him, despite his arrest in 2017 over the torture case.
“You’re genuinely remorseful for the impact your offending behaviour has had on your wife and your young son because you have placed yourself in a position where you missed the birth of your son, you can’t be there to raise him, or to be with her, and you realise how badly you have let her down,” Sweeney said in 2019.
Their son was orphaned by Noormets’ actions and is now in the care of his maternal grandmother.
Noormets grew up in what Sweeney referred to as an “unstable” and “dysfunctional” home environment, moving often, and subject to bullying at school.
She said it led him to develop “dysfunctional coping mechanisms”.
As a young man, Noormets worked in a number of trades including painting, brick paving and flooring while being introduced to bikie gang members through his growing drug addiction.
He then tried to clean up his act to compete in martial arts, but found quitting alcohol and illicit drugs made his suicidal thoughts return, which led him to relapse.
He was 21 years old when he first went to prison for a methamphetamine-related drug offence. While in jail, his stepfather was killed by a drug-affected driver in a road rage incident.
Noormets was released on parole, but it was cancelled after he failed to abide by his conditions.
In 2015, aged 25, he lost his job as he and Lyall struggled to conceive a child which caused him to reach “a very low point in his life”.
Sweeney said it was against this backdrop Noormets became a nominee for the Rebels.
“People with instability in their life can sometimes be attracted to associations like that because of a desire to belong somewhere and to feel the support of friendship,” she said.
“It’s very obvious that drugs have diverted you from what could have been a useful life.
“You are intelligent. You are articulate. You are capable of being a model prisoner, but that is not the person that [your torture victim] was dealing with on that night.”
During the 13-hour torture ordeal, Sweeney said Noormets lit his victim on fire, hog-tied him, beat him and waterboarded him.
“It’s extraordinary to me that a person could do that to another person ... it was not done through a moment of drunken anger, this whole incident was premeditated and it was done to punish [your victim],” she said.
He was in prison from 2017 until 2022, when the Prisoners Review Board granted Noormets bail after he completed a number of courses in jail.
His parole conditions required him not to associate with bikies or drink alcohol.
One year after his release, shortly after separating from Lyall and moving out of her home, he killed her and then himself.
In a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for Noormets and Lyall’s orphaned five-year-old son, the organiser described Lyall as “loyal, independent, funny and caring”.
“There wasn’t a day that went by where Georgia didn’t make a positive impact on someone’s life,” she said.
WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam called for a review into the board’s decision to grant Noormets on parole before his sentence was due to expire in 2024.
“It is clear there is a significant gap between community expectations and what we are seeing in terms of decisions of the parole board and sentencing decisions of the court,” she said.
“This individual was jailed for kidnapping and torture, how on earth was he set free two years before his complete sentencing date?”
Support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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