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The mother of a woman who died after a violent sexual assault on a New South Wales beach says she felt like her heart had been ripped out when she learnt of her daughter's death.
Key points:
- Lynette Daley was killed during a boozy 2011 camping trip
- A jury took only 32 minutes to convict Adrian Attwater and Paul Marris
- Attwater, her boyfriend at the time, was found guilty of manslaughter
Lynette Daley, 33, died from severe blood loss after she was violently sexually assaulted on a north coast beach near Iluka in 2011.
After listening to weeks of evidence, a jury deliberated for just 32 minutes before convicting Attwater and his co-accused Paul Maris.
Attwater, 43, was found guilty of manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. Maris, 47, was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and hindering evidence collection.
A court today heard sentencing submissions for the pair.
In a statement to the court, Ms Daley's mother Thelma Davis said: "I still keep thinking she's going to walk through the door, the pain is always there, it will never go away."
Ms Davis said her daughter's death made her feel like her heart had been ripped out.
In a separate statement, Ms Daley's seven children said the conviction of the two men had been a relief but it would not bring back their mother.
"We have had to suffer without a mother, it's been pretty rough for all of us kids
"We all have so many things we want to tell her, but we don't have the opportunity to tell her that.
"These men have taken away the greatest thing any child could have in their lives.
"I hope one day they look back and reflect on all the wrong they have done."
'He should resign': Family's anger at DPP
Outside the court, Ms Daley's family said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lloyd Babb, should resign.
Despite a thorough police investigation in 2011 and coronial findings in 2014 which strongly recommended charges be laid, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions did not prosecute the men.
Ms Daley's stepfather, Gordon Davies, said the DPP's decision was solely responsible for the trauma and grief suffered by the family since 2011.
"He [Mr Babb] should resign — he made the decision not to prosecute and it took the jury 32 minutes, where's the justice in that?" he said.
Mr Davies said the hearing had been emotional and had just scratched the surface of the grief the family suffered.
"You can't sleep at night, you bicker and fight among yourselves, you never get closure. We just wouldn't give up the fight, if we gave up the fight we may as well all lie down and die," he said.
The hearing was told about Ms Daley's special qualities, and Mr Davies said Lynette was in a class of her own.
"Just look at her kids and you'll see why she's so special. They've all got little idiosyncrasies of their mother," he said.
He rejected the suggestion that an apology from the DPP would be sufficient, and he called for a maximum sentence for the two men.
Attwater and Maris will be sentenced on December 8 in Coffs Harbour.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, coffs-harbour-2450
First posted