An Australian woman jailed in Iceland for biting off part of her abusive husband's tongue says she is taking her appeal to the highest court in the country to help protect victims of domestic violence.

Nara Walker, an artist originally from the Sunshine Coast, was convicted in the District Court of Iceland last year over the incident at the couple's apartment in the early hours of November 1, 2017.

Speaking to 9news.com.au from Reykjavik, Ms Walker detailed what she claims happened that night.

Nara Walker was convicted in Iceland after biting off the tongue of her abusive husband. (Supplied)

Ms Walker and her French husband had been partying with an American tourist they had met that weekend and an Icelandic woman.

A disagreement, fuelled by alcohol, broke out and Ms Walker attempted to leave the apartment at the same time as the American man.

Furious, Ms Walker's husband pushed the guest down the stairs.

Ms Walker said the American man was laying injured and "helpless" at the foot of the stairs when her husband approached him.

Ms Walker followed her "enraged" husband, who had previously assaulted her on multiple occasions.

"I was now being blocked by my abuser and I was attempting to get past him," she said.

"He was yelling at me and started pushing me.

"I fell backwards into the stairs. The pushes turned into punches.

"While he was physically abusing me I could feel his gaze on me.

Ms Walker is appealing her conviction on grounds of self defence. (Supplied)

"It was a penetrating gaze which made me feel doom in the pit of my belly, his eyes were intense and black, he looked possessed and I felt I had no hope."

Ms Walker said she was punched repeatedly and carried upstairs by the much-larger man.

She said she tried to leave again but was physically restrained.

"I was crying and he kept yelling that I was his and calling me insults," Ms Walker said.

"I was still finding it difficult to breathe and he forced his tongue into my mouth.

"I reacted without thought or intent."

Ms Walker bit down on her husband's tongue, severing around 2.3cm of it.



A brawl ensued with the Icelandic woman, leaving all three injured.

Police arrived and a traumatised Ms Walker was arrested, while her husband and the second woman were taken to hospital for treatment for their own injuries.

The husband's tongue was later reattached but in a shortened form, leaving him with what he claimed in court is a permanent speech impediment.

TURBULENT RELATIONSHIP

Ms Walker and her now ex-husband met at a Brisbane cocktail bar in July 2013 and later moved to London together.

They married there in 2016 and moved to Reykjavik that year after he was transferred with his job at a pharmaceuticals company.

Ms Walker has given 9news.com.au a detailed account of what she claims was systematic domestic abuse, including multiple instances of rape and drugging.

"The signs of abuse were always there; however, I didn't recognise the red flags," she said.

"With my abuser it was as if he was playing Jenga with me.

Ms Walker, an internationally renowned artist, moved to Iceland with her then-husband in 2016. (Supplied)

"Strategically pulling pieces of me away with the use of psychological abuse."

Ms Walker said as the relationship developed, the violence escalated.

In one incident, just months after they met, Ms Walker said she suffered facial fractures and concussion after being thrown to the ground in her sleep.

Her new boyfriend told her she had suffered an accident and refused to take her to hospital.

"I could not think clearly and wanted to believe him," she said.

"I couldn't understand why someone would want to hurt me so badly and a technique of survival is to dismiss the abuse as it is so much to take on psychologically, this was the man I was choosing to be with."

Months later, Ms Walker awoke to pain in her genitals.

She confronted her boyfriend, who admitted to raping her in her sleep after initially trying to claim Ms Walker had fallen asleep during consensual sex.

On yet another occasion, Ms Walker said she woke to her husband attempting to tie her up with rope to rape her after a fight.

Ms Walker also recalled a comment she claims he made on a trip to a volcano in Iceland: "This is where you take your wife when she has been bad to get rid of her, to get a new one."

In September 2017, the artist returned home from a trip to Berlin, where she had been working on a piece inspired by her abuse.

Soon after, Ms Walker said her husband drugged her by spiking her tea with LSD.

"I had come home and told him that I could not live in this any longer," she said.

"I was in bed and he brought me a teapot of tea.

"After I drank it he said there was acid in it.

"I then realised that this man had no care for me and that I could not be with someone who continuously treats me as he did."

It was this final straw that saw Ms Walker make plans to leave her husband, but little more than a month later came the argument that led to her arrest.

9news.com.au has seen messages between the couple where Ms Walker's ex-husband appears to admit to physically assaulting and raping her.

THE APPEAL

Ms Walker said she feels let down by the initial police investigation and legal process.

During the scuffle on the night of her arrest, Ms Walker suffered a fractured rib, internal bruising, a sprained vertebra, chest injuries and bruising to her upper arms and legs.

These are included in medical reports as part of Ms Walker's court cases, seen by 9news.com.au.

"When I did speak out to the police in Iceland I was not given any medical help, I was instead handcuffed and taken to jail," she said.

"After they took me to court they called my abuser and told him they were coming to take my passport, making me even more vulnerable to the man who I was trembling with fear of."

Ms Walker applied to have domestic charges laid against her husband in the days after her own arrest, but she says the investigation has stalled and appears to have been shelved.

"They deemed me guilty as soon as they walked into my apartment," she said.

"I admitted what happened. I assumed telling the truth would be taken into account in court.

Ms Walker says she wants her story to change how victims of domestic violence are treated by the legal system. (Supplied)

"The system is built more in favour of the abuser than the victim."

Ms Walker was convicted in the District Courts of Iceland in March last year of the serious assault of her then-husband and the assault of the Icelandic woman.

She was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all but three suspended. An application to the Court of Appeal failed, with the overall sentence also increased to 15 months.

The travel ban and confiscation of Ms Walker's passport means she is unable to leave Iceland – either for work or to come home and move on with her life.

"I want to come home, I'm stuck here, I can't work here. It's as if I'm still stuck in the abuse of my ex," she said.

"I'm not able to travel, I'm not able to work.

"I'm not able to live a life of freedom or see my family."

Ms Walker's Supreme Court attorney has now made an application to appeal the conviction in the Supreme Court of Iceland, the country's highest court.

She claims her self-defence argument was not properly considered by the court and alleges the witnesses against her – her ex-husband and the Icelandic woman, who are now in a relationship – lied in their testimony.

"I have never denied any of my actions as I acted in complete self-defence and with regards to his injury, I believe the law should view it as an emergency response," Ms Walker said.

"What am I meant to do when a man twice my size in weight and his height being 25cm towering over me, who has used all accounts of violence against me over the years again and again, beats me up and carries me back inside my home to hold me against my will as prisoner to then force himself onto me?

"It would seem that I would have been accepted as a statistic rather than a woman who protects her body under serious violence and threat.

"I felt in danger, helpless and terrified."

Ms Walker's goal is that the Supreme Court accepts her case and clarifies the provisions on self-defence and domestic violence in the Icelandic penal code.

Despite the ongoing legal turmoil and her fears she could still be targeted by her ex-husband, Ms Walker said she wanted her case brought to light to help other victims of domestic violence.

"I've already won because I'm alive today," she said.

"I strongly believe he was going to kill me that night. I could see it in his eyes.

"The fact I'm not a statistic of women murdered by their intimate partner means my voice is here today, if my story helps one woman I'm making a change.

"Whatever comes from the appeal, I'll deal with it.

"My story needs to be heard to help other women, to help enforce change, if not today then in the future."