‘Brutally taken from us:’ Peter Weaver’s family heartbreak bared following Phillip Harris murder trial
Loved ones of an adored family man whose life was stolen in a ‘senseless’, ‘evil’ and brutal act of violence have spoken out as they grasp for closure after the murderer was sentenced to life in prison.
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Insurmountable heartbreak, grief, and anger permeated the Toowoomba Supreme Court when Phillip Harris was sentenced to life imprisonment for the “senseless” murder of adored father and grandfather Peter Weaver in 2019.
Following a 10 day trial, a jury found the 34-year-old man guilty of stabbing Mr Weaver to death in his home alongside his dog Max, and dismembering the body.
Harris also doused the man’s body and South Toowoomba home in petrol, before setting it on fire, which he pleaded guilty to at the beginning of the trial on November 19, 2024.
Every day during the trial which detailed the horrific death of Mr Weaver and an earlier assault he silently suffered through at the hands of his murderer and neighbour, his resilient family sat steadfast in the public gallery.
At times the killer’s lack of remorse, slander, and brutality sent family members fleeing the room in tears – but not for long.
Following the guilty verdict on Friday, November 29, a dozen or so of Mr Weaver’s family members cried tears of relief.
They said they were happy with the verdict but were left exhausted and more heartbroken than ever.
During Harris’s sentence, a handful of the family members’ victim impact statements were read into the record.
Danae Weaver, daughter
Danae Weaver said she was spurred to write a victim impact statement that brought her late father into the courtroom to show that he was more than a victim.
“He was a part of a generation who grew up in the 60s and 70s that listened to the Beatles, Neil Young, and Cat Stevens,” she said.
She said her 6 foot tall, solid built, and kind of scruffy looking dad appeared a little clumsy -the result of an acquired brain injury when he was 36-years-old.
“He would help anyone that needed it, he was also a little bit eccentric and never shied away from challenging conversations,” she said.
“He had a hard life and grieved the loss of his dad when he was 16, and then lost his beautiful mum just over a year before he was brutally taken away from us.”
The 48-year-old mother said her sentimental dad loved animals, but most of all he loved his children and his grandchildren.
“He always got himself into shenanigans that my siblings and I will talk fondly of at every family gathering for years to come,” she said.
“Growing up I often remember crying for dad whenever he went away for work or travelled.
“He always had a knack for making everything better.
“It is really hard to put into words how taking away the one person that loved me unconditionally has made my already difficult life much worse.”
She said her dad was a pillar of strength for her even as an adult, especially when she was struggling through domestic violence.
“He was there for me, provided me with a place to go, and money when I had none to feed my kids,” she said.
No forgiveness for ‘self entitled tough guy’
When Danae was coerced to leave Queensland by her violent ex-partner – she left her dog Max behind who quickly turned into Mr Weaver’s companion in life and death.
“I will never get to hear his stories and lived experience, and his thoughtful wisdom ever again, I will never get to show him that I got out of that abusive relationship, she said.
“He would have been so happy for me and the kids but it’s all too late, someone decided they needed to find an easy target to feel tough with and took a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather. I will not forget and I will not forgive.”
She said she wished she had time to build a better relationship with her dad.
“I had time to be a better daughter, until I didn’t,” she said.
“Or the time that I thought I had to show my dad how much I loved him and to show how much he means to me was stolen from me in the worst possible way.”
Danae said her dad was the only grandfather her children knew.
“They’ll always have to live with the pain of losing him in such a way,” she said.
“They also lost a part of me when I lost my dad.
“This stripped me to the brink of insanity, how could a human being do this? How?
“I’m so lost now. Dad was always my home, my safe place where someone knows and understands me and is always there for me.”
Danae Weaver said every day she cried for the loss of her father as well as the pain he suffered during his final moments.
“And yet the instigator of this remained perched in his cell hoping for his freedom, hoping that he gets more handouts without exertions on his part,” she said.
“I know he will appeal (the murder conviction) because that’s what their personality types with no remorse do.
“It’s the privileged (and) self-entitled inability to take no for a response.”
Danae said her father was an independent man with strong morals who never held a grudge, and always told her not to hate anyone.
“I am permanently sickened by this putrid act of an able-bodied person that could have easily just left my dad and his dog alone,” she said.
“Dad would have helped anyone in need, dad was worldly and wise, and he could read people quite well, he knew that Phillip Harris was privileged, self-entitled, and couldn’t take no take no for an answer.
“I have been sentenced to a lifetime of fury over the knowledge that a 20-something-year-old who fancies themselves a tough guy fighter beat and kicked my beautiful dad while he defended himself inside his own home and then went on to portray himself as a well-meaning and helpful citizen.
“He then lied about my dad being a drunk and a druggo, projecting his own personal characteristics onto an innocent man.
“I am deeply disturbed that we live in a society where dad could live peacefully for many years only to have a disordered personality move into the neighbourhood and manipulate the opinions (of others).”
Emma Gniel, daughter
Mr Weaver’s daughter Emma Gniel said waiting for justice over the past five years was frustrating and arduous.
“We were robbed of our virile and larger-than-life dad in our teenage years then robbed again of our funny, kind, and loving recluse of a dad decades later, both times due to unprovoked violence,” she said.
The 47-year-old mother struggled to comprehend what happened to her gentle, artistic, and nurturing father who created her happiest childhood memories and encouraged her to be curious and strive for the best.
“(They’re) memories filled with countless hours at the beach searching for shark teeth and swimming (and) laughing while riding on the handlebars of his bike,” she said.
“He had a wicked sense of humour and secretly loved when his girls teamed up and teased him about anything and everything, laughing while telling us how terrible we were.
“A sense of humour he definitely shared with his children.
“While he might have appeared to others as a dishevelled recluse, to his children he was a warm and generous father who showed love and pride all throughout our lives and he was loved back.”
Although sharing her father’s love for music, she said she can’t listen to a whole generation of music.
“(There’s) recipes that I can’t bear to cook and places I can’t go,” she said.
The Toowoomba nurse said she missed the little things the most, like bumping into each other at the shops, and still found herself looking for him walking his dog Max.
Robbed of a peaceful death
As her children grow older, Ms Gniel said they come to her with questions that she will never be able to answer.
“There are so many photos I would like to share with my children which were destroyed in the fire as dad was our keeper of photos and memorabilia,” she said.
“We cherish everything we were able to salvage from the wreckage of his home.”
While working in the medical field, Mr Gniel said she evolved a “profound understanding and appreciation,” for what she now defined as a “good death”.
“The peaceful passing of someone who is surrounded by family and love and devoid of pain and suffering,” she said.
“I am most envious of those families and wish my dad could have had the dignity of the same.
“Nobody on this earth deserves the violence he endured.
“The guilt is also very hard to deal with.
“The guilt of sleeping peacefully in preparation for a night shift while he was brutally murdered.
“The unanswered phone calls.
“Of not fighting harder to get him to act further after that first assault.
“I honestly thought we had more time.”
Mr Gniel said her father was a vulnerable person who had a steel plate in his skull from a decades-old injury when he was attacked from behind.
She said his living situation and perceived social status, seemed to have made him an easy “target for a violent predator who relentlessly harassed, physically assaulted, and stole from” him.
“Hearing him be described in such a derogatory way throughout this trial has been utterly gutting and I feel shows an absolute lack of empathy and human decency on the offender’s behalf.
“After 63 years on this earth, all we have left of our dad is a small box.”
Leah Weaver, daughter
Mr Weaver’s daughters often joked that his youngest girl, Leah Weaver, was his ‘babysitter’ as she visited him on a weekly basis to run errands.
Ms Weaver told the court her life would never be the same and every day she struggled to overcome the grief and loss.
“My heart aches in ways I never thought possible, this pain is constant,” she said.
“The moments we once shared are gone - the sound of his voice, his guidance, the warmth of his presence, his witty and sometimes dark sense of humour and those little inside jokes that only he and I shared.
The mother said everyone had that one person they relied on, confided in, and seek comfort in.
“He was my person and you stole my person from me,” she said.
“Whenever I was in trouble he was always there ready and willing to help in any way he possibly could.
“That one person who called every day just to say hello and to make sure I was okay and that I didn’t need anything.
“He always looked out for us, his children and grandchildren, and loved us all so much, something I regrettably took for granted.
“You (Phillip Harris) took that away from me and stole the memories my children should be making with him.
“You didn’t just take my dad’s life that day, you also took mine, my children have suffered, they no longer have a happy and bubbly mum instead they’re met with me bedridden with depression.
“They miss me, I miss me.
“There is a constant feeling of emptiness in my chest as if part of me had been ripped away.”
She said her view of the word shattered that day - safety and comfort ripped out from underneath her.
“The violence that took my father’s life has left me fearful and unsure of the future,” she said.
“I feel as if a part of me is broken and I don’t know how to fix it.
“I am here to ask that you understand the depth of the pain and suffering your senseless actions have caused.
“I want you to know that this loss is not just about my father’s death, it’s about the life we all lost when he was taken.
“I will never forgive you for that.
“Not ever.”
Daylee Weaver, firstborn grandchild
Daylee Weaver said she often joked with her grandfather about being his favourite and cherished the memories she had a chance to make, while forever mourning the ones that would never come.
“He won’t be there for my wedding, the birth of my future children, or when I buy my first home,” she said.
“No more family Christmases or Eastern where he would’ve been able to sit back and watch his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and be surrounded by love and family.
“It will forever feel like there will be a piece missing.”
The young woman said he never complained about her horrible cooking and was a great sport during a cheeky prank call or two.
“He would go along with (ridiculous things) and then laugh and say he couldn’t believe he’d fallen for it again.
“Grandad was a man of routine… he used the same coffee cup every day for as long as I can remember.
“One of the things I looked up to him for the most was that he cared so much about his family and let us flip that routine upside down when we needed it when we needed a reminder that we were loved.”
Although she felt sad at times, not knowing what he was like before his traumatic brain injury, she said she was at peace because it never robbed him of his core values, humour, or kindness.
“It didn’t stop him from opening his heart and home to those who needed it,” she said.
She said she had hoped the court process would provide a semblance of peace and understanding.
“In reality, it has opened wounds that I have spent the last five years trying to heal from,” she said.
“The guilt, confusion, anger, trauma, and sleepless nights filled with nightmares, the nights filled with tears and heartbreak where I try to make sense of what happened but am unable to do so.
“It has made me realise there is no amount of time that will allow this pain to pass.
“He was a son, a brother, a father, a friend, a grandfather. He had a life and a home and a family.
“He was valued and he was deeply loved.”
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