Victim Impact Statement - Chris Burgess father of Tania Burgess

For anyone who is interested, here is my victim impact statement as read in court.

I am Tania's father; I have had the privilege of knowing her for the 15 years of her short life. I have seen many events in her life and will keep all of these memories in my heart for the rest of my life; like when I watched her come into this world on 19th April 1990.

I also recall the uncoordinated 4 year old that did a funny little dance across the dance floor, which had the whole room in stitches of laughter, while the older students were having their ballet exams. There was also the day that I dropped her off at preschool and I watched her wave goodbye to me, with a tear in her eye. My heart broke as I left her there and drove away, but I left knowing that when I see her again she would tell me of all the exciting news of the day and I could relive it through her eyes.

I also recall the other times at school; the trying times as she went through many issues and struggles with the transition to high school. Then as I watched, she became the elegant young lady who was the one her friends looked to for strength in their own problem times.

There are many other things I have seen and hold dear, and if I were to write all that I can recall, it would fill much more than the number of pages allocated for my family and I to try and express our loss.

I also managed to spend the last few moments of her life with her. Although, I'm not sure that she even knew that I was there for her. This was the time when my heart broke and I knew that I could not be there with her. One of the hardest things I have had to do is to help carry her coffin to her grave and see it lowered into the ground. As I drove home the fact that Tania was never to return home again and be a part of our family was whole heart wrenching. I know other families have losses. Some even have the unthinkable tragedy of losing a child. But to loose a child to murder, shakes ones faith in humanity.

In the future - I was looking forward to watching her grow into a beautiful, caring woman and guiding her as she met the challenges of work, life and love. There are so many events that we will now never get to see, like meeting the young man that she would have chosen to be her partner. Giving her away at her wedding, the grandchildren that will never be born and I will never get to know. Plus a multitude of other events that would have been important in her life and ours. All lost forever.

The 19th July 2005 was the beginning of the most difficult time that I have ever had to endure, when a thoughtless and selfish act took Tania from us forever and put an end to the bright future that would have been Tania's.

The impact of this one event has not only impacted our families and friends, but has been felt by the whole Central Coast. We have even been contacted by people from all over Australia, some of whom we have never met, who have expressed compassion and sorrow at our loss.

A few short years ago, I could not have even considered not having Tania in my life. But it is now a stark reality that has been shoved in my face over and over again as I have gone through the process of the prosecution bringing the perpetrator to justice.

The one thing that I now find the most difficult to deal with is that even though we have gone through all this pain we still have absolutely no idea of why the perpetrator felt the need to take Tania's life. This remains unexplained to me and will always remain part of my torment.

The loss of Tania has had a huge impact on every aspect of our lives. The dream home that we planned and built for our family to grow up in, we can now no longer live in. Our business has suffered greatly and continues to suffer from the lack of focus that I have had and continue to lack. Our personal finances are in a mess. My relationship with my wife Mandy has been challenged more by this than anything else in the last 24 years. My son just will not speak about what has happened.

Keeping this in mind and remembering that justice must be done, I would like to request that you consider punishing the perpetrator to the fullest extent allowable by the law.

One of the things that I have learned through this experience is that nothing brings satisfaction. Not a guilt verdict, nor anything else. The only thing that would bring satisfaction is to have Tania restored to us, but I know that this is not possible.

Another thing I have learned is that words can not even come close to expressing the loss that we feel or ongoing impact of this event on our lives.

Son walks after stabbing mum to death

What a perverse world we live in.

I just read an article on the Daily Telegraph web site about a 23 year old man who stabbed his mother to death and has been released after just 22 months in gaol (for those who are interested, this is the Aussie way of spelling jail).

Apparently he stabbed her 57 times! From what I understand the average stabbing consists of 2 to 3 injuries.

So do you think that 57 could be a just bit excessive?

I think that he probably needs serious psychological treatment and to be removed from the community to stop him from doing it to anybody else.

Submissions for sentencing

On Friday we attended the submissions for sentencing.

Both Mandy and I chose to have our victim impact statements included in the submissions. You can find one of the articles about it here.

The submissions have been held over until 12 September 2008, because a witness for the defense was unable to attend.

So, we wait again. At least by taking the time to fully investigate this, the Judge is ensuring that an appeal will not likely be granted.