Andrew Cobby found guilt of murder of wife Kym Cobby

A judge has savaged Andrew John Cobby after sentencing him to life imprisonment for the callous murder of his wife Kym Cobby, asking him how he wants to be remembered.

Andrew Cobby upon his arrest

Andrew John Cobby has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the violent murder of his estranged wife Kym Cobby, who was attacked with a hammer and choked to death in the driveway of her own home.

After a day of deliberations, a Brisbane Supreme Court jury found Cobby, 59, guilty of murdering mother-of-three Kym Cobby, whose bloodied body was discovered in the gutter outside her Gold Coast hinterland home in November 2017.

‘DO ONE REMARKABLE THING IN YOUR LIFE’

In a powerful address, Justice Peter Callaghan condemned Cobby’s “sickening” and “frightening” crime, his “deception” and the “remarkable performance” that followed.

He also urged the callous killer to reveal his motive for the murder, telling him it was the only “remarkable” thing he could now do for Kym’s family.

“Yours is a most extraordinary case, there is simply no doubt that you took with you that night a hammer and removed it from the car with an intent to use it,” Justice Callaghan said.

“The crime was clearly premeditated.

“It was also sickening because you used that hammer to inflict blows to the head of an unarmed woman.

“We’ve all had to see the pictures, they’re painful enough, but we’ve also heard her screams.

“They are not things that anyone in this room will ever forget.

“It is just frightening that you could maintain a murderous intent for the length of time that it took to extinguish Kym’s life, even as she fought valiantly, it seems, to remove your hands form her throat.

“You were no doubt using the strength that you had built from giving massages, such as the ones you had given to own family so recently.

“And what puts all of this totally beyond comprehension is that there is just no discernible motive.

“Your relationship with Kym was clearly unusual, but it had persisted over decades and she was your support.

Victim Kym Cobby

“We know from what we’ve just heard she was actually the only support you had in life, in your whole life there was one person who stood by you, and you did these extraordinary things to her.

“Standing by you all those years would not have been an easy thing to do, given your capacity for deception and your unreliability.

“Your capacity for deception was something which we saw on show both I think when you were speaking to police and staged that remarkable performance, but also here in court when you were shedding tears which I infer were for yourself and not for her.

“She was the one who was willing to go out and meet you without question that night completely blind to the awful fate that awaited her.

“You then murdered her, and in the ultimate abandonment, left her corpse at the scene.

“The mystery of your behaviour is really compounded when it is appreciated that Kym was the mother of your truly remarkable children…the three of them throughout this trial have been so dignified, so restrained, so courageous that they just seem like wonderful young people.

“Children that any father would be truly proud of, and yet you have caused them unimaginable pain, desperate confusion and extraordinary grief.

“You have robbed so many people of so much and the grief of the whole family including Olwyn and Brad and your children and Kym’s sister has been expressed so eloquently this afternoon that it can be accepted that Kym truly had a voice here today in this trial.

“It also says something about you that the story you contrived in an effort to escape responsibility was one that depended for its believability on an assessment of you as a coward.

“You compounded the disgust that is to be felt about that by attempting to blame six demonstrably innocent people, including Kym’s elderly mother and her brother.

“All of them also handled your preposterous allegations with equanimity and treated your vile fiction with the contempt it deserved.

“You’d already swindled some of these people so I suppose it didn’t bother you if their opinion of you went even lower.

“But surely Mr Cobby, surely the opinion of your own children still remains an issue for you.

Kym Cobby

“Given the sentence that I will impose, you will spend a very long time in prison, but you may yet live to be released on parole, at which time your children will be well and truly into adulthood, they will have grown and I hope now prospered, there may be grandchildren, we’ve heard that contemplated.

“But you should please contemplate what awaits you for the rest of your life.

“Contemplate how you will be remembered by those you knew, those who may once have loved you.

“I’m not sure there was much else in your life for which you will actually want to be remembered, but it is still possible that you could do one remarkable thing in your life, and it would be truly remarkable if even now at this point you found it within yourself to simply tell the truth, you can still do that and you will have time to think about whether you will.

“In the meantime you are convicted of the offence of murder, you are sentenced to life imprisonment.”

‘I HOPE YOU NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN’

Kym Cobby’s mother Olwyn Schulz, in a victim impact statement, told the court the trauma the family had experienced was something only those who had left a loved one to homicide could comprehend.

“Nothing will ever feel right again,” she said.

“I am tired of feeling sad and exhausted. I’m sad that the fun in my soul has disappeared. No parent should have to bury their child before them.”

Speaking directly to her daughter’s killer, Ms Schulz said the impact on the family had been “devastating”.

“You have left the biggest hole inside our hearts, you will never be forgiven or forgotten,” she said.

“What monster does this unforgivable act to an innocent human being and to his own children.

“I hope you never see the light of day again and are never released.”

Kym Cobby

Kym’s sister Kay said the mother-of-three was strong-willed, beautiful and kind with a lovely personality.

“I feel broken and powerless that I cannot fix it,” she said.

“Seeing the pain on my mum’s face breaks my heart into a million pieces.”

She described Cobby as a “despicable human” and a “monster who has caused nothing but pain and grief” and said she hoped he would never be released from prison.

Cobby has denied any involvement in his wife’s death, and Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said we may never know the true reason for the murder.

“It certainly represents a betrayal of any loving relationship that had ever been held between the couple,” he said.

“Your Honour has heard her screams as she was attacked; her killing involved deliberate violence when she is first attacked with a hammer brought to the street by the defendant.

“It would be reasonable to accept that Mrs Cobby had fought for her life and run from her attacker until she was subdued and then strangled until her life was taken away from her.”

‘DECEPTION A CALCULATED EFFORT’

Mr McCarthy said Cobby had attempted to avoid responsibility for his horrific crime.

“Your Honour has heard the series of deceptions the defendant engaged in the fictional story of others attacking his wife,” he said.

“He made no effort to obtain assistance for his wife, his self-interest was paramount and Your Honour would accept the time period of three hours before he contacted his own son was again a calculated effort by him to deceive others and escape responsibility for what had taken place.”

Cobby claimed he had been to visit his wife and that they had been ambushed by an unknown man and he had fled and left Kym behind because he was afraid for his life.

During his closing submissions, Mr McCarthy said Cobby had been running from a “fictitious attacker” and his claims were “just rubbish”.

“The only person on that street who needed protection was Kym Cobby, and the only person she needed protection from was Andrew Cobby,” Mr McCarthy said.

During the four-week trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, Cobby claimed that in the lead up to Kym’s death his family had received threats over his failed investment deals.

In his closing address, defence barrister Tony Kimmins said the prosecution had been unable to offer any motive that Cobby had to kill his wife and the court had heard no evidence of any history of domestic violence.

He reminded the jury that the Cobby family had been threatened in the lead up to the murder over Mr Cobby’s investment deals and suggested Ms Cobby had become “collateral damage” for his past misdeeds.

More than 50 witnesses were called during the trial.

Kym Cobby