Sentencing

It's been a while since I've posted.

We attended court today and the judge read out the verdict. 22 years with a non-parole period of 17 years. Not what we had been hoping for. I would have liked it to be somewhere between 20 to 25 years before he could be released, but 17 years is better than having a murderer running around the streets. Now he has quite a bit of time on his hands to contemplate his actions and the effect on the community.

According to what I read in the media, his parents are absolutely convinced that he is innocent and apparently have evidence to prove his innocence. We've had an informal chat with the police and they have not told us about this evidence his parents have, so who knows.

From what I understand of the evidence that was presented in court it was very convincing and pointed directly at the young man accused of Tania's murder. The jury must have thought the same thing as they came back very quickly with a guilty verdict, if I remember correctly it was around an hour.

A lot of Mandy's family were there to provide support as well as Karen, the lady who found Tania being attacked outside her hotel room. Karen has been back every day that we have been to court and has been there to support us, thank you Karen.

While I'm thanking people, I also need to thank those who brought us meals, called around just to chat and see how we were going, prayed for us, text us continually with messages of support and the other things that I can't think of. Plus the rest of the local community who just care.

One last thing, thank you to the media for reporting the trial with reasonable accuracy, since some of the earlier reports have been "less than accurate".