Quakers Hill Nursing Home killer Roger Dean sentenced to life without parole for murders of 11 elderly residents

ROGER Kingsley Dean will never be released from jail; the families of his victims will never get over their loss.

Firefighters at the Quakers Hill nursing home on Hambledon Rd, Quakers Hill in November, 2011.

ROGER Kingsley Dean will never be released from jail; the families of his victims will never get over their loss.

Dorothy Sterling used to dance in the corridors of Quakers Hill Nursing Home.

But now whenever Amanda Tucker thinks of her beloved grandmother, she wonders if the sweet old lady died scared and screaming for help.

Ms Sterling, 85, was one of mass murderer Roger Dean's first victims.

"We picture our nana, we (have to) think if she was scared or if she was screaming needing help," Amanda Tucker said.

Victim impact statements: Lives cruelly taken

The granddaughter of victim Dorothy Sterling said no punishment would ever be enough for Dean, adding the fatal fire had robbed the family of their happier memories.

Killer felt 'sense of evil' when he lit deadly blaze'

"Our memories aren't of a sweet lady who passed away of natural causes, we had to give DNA to know that that was our grandmother. It's not a nice way to remember anything.

"It's never going to take the pain away from any of these families."

Dean set fire to an empty bed in a room where Ms Sterling and another immobile and helpless resident, Dorothy Wu, were sleeping on November 18, 2011.

He then led another concerned resident away from the blaze, lying to her that help was on the way.

"My nanna never made it out of that nursing home,'' Ms Tucker told reporters outside court after Dean was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of 11 elderly nursing home residents.

"He walked straight past her and didn't help.

"Our memories aren't of a sweet lady who passed away from natural causes. We had to give DNA to know that was our grandmother. He stole our memories.''

There were mixed emotions among the dozens of relatives of Dean's victims who crammed into the Supreme Court in Sydney on Thursday - relief and joy at the lengthy sentence, anger at the atrocity of Dean's actions and grief for the loss of their loved ones.

Paul Cachia, whose mother Emmanuela Cachia was seriously injured in the blaze and later died, raised his hands in the air and cheered outside court, saying justice had been done.

"He's a son of a b... He's lucky I didn't get my hands on him, put it that way,'' Mr Cachia said.

But Lorraine Osland, whose mother Lola Bennett perished in the blaze, said a life sentence wouldn't make any difference to her family's pain.

"He got a life sentence and so did we,'' Ms Osland said through her sobs before she was led away.

Many relatives broke down in court as Justice Megan Latham described the pain and terror Dean's victims must have felt before their deaths, and the guilt many relatives felt for putting their loved ones in a home they chose "as a place of care and safety''.

One woman fainted and had to be carried out of court mid-way through the sentencing.

Tina Baker, whose mother Neeltje Valkay perished in the blaze, said she still wakes up in the middle of the night, picturing her mum's face.

Ms Valkay would have turned 92 in ten days time.

"The heartache will never go away,'' Ms Baker said.

"But justice has been served and I'm very happy about that.''

Justice Latham paid tribute to the relatives of the victims who had to deal with the "extremely far reaching consequences'' of Dean's actions.

"Each relative of each murder victim expressed a profound sense of loss,'' she said.

"Not just for the victim's life, but for the lost connections with family, the lost opportunities for extended family gatherings and the telling and retelling of family stories that give everyone a sense of the past, a sense of place and a sense of self.'

Dean, 37, showed no emotion as Justice Megan Latham said he would never be released on parole.

The announcement that the arsonist would never walk free from prison was met with tears and applause from a packed public gallery of the victims' relatives.

One family member yelled out "you'll get yours" as Dean was led from the courtroom dock by sheriffs.

It had been a dramatic sentence, with one female relative collapsing shortly after the sentencing remarks began.

Justice Latham said that there had been "planning and premeditation" on Dean's behalf when he lit two separate fires in a high dependency unit of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in the early hours of November 18, 2011.

The court deemed Dean's murders fall into the worst case of offending.

The judge noted all of the victims had been under Dean's care, and that he knew two of victims who were sleeping in the room where he lit the second fire were immobile.

"The terror and fear experienced by the victims must have been horrific," Justice Latham said.

"A worse fate is difficult to imagine."

During sentencing proceedings for Dean earlier this year, 11 victim impact statements were read detailing the anguish the families felt knowing they had placed their loved ones at the home.

The court heard many of them sat by hospital bedsides in the days after the fire, watching them "succumb to burns and respiratory failure."

Justice Latham said Dean's moral culpability for the crime, which officially made him the state's worst ever mass killer, wasn't diminished by a diagnosed personality disorder.

The court heard Dean, who was bullied at school and endured a difficult relationship with his family, is "narcissistic."

The state's senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC called for a life sentence during a hearing in June.

He pleaded guilty to all charges against him on the morning his Supreme Court trial has been due to start in May.

He was sentenced to a minimum of six years for the eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

Outside court, family members embraced and punched the air with their fists.

Two of the residents who died at the home in the November 18, 2011 blaze were immobile and couldn't be moved from their beds.

Dean lit the fires to cover up the theft of 238 painkillers from the home's treatment cupboard, later telling police he felt "a sense of evil" come over him.

He also pleaded guilty to eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

Earlier that evening police had visited the home to investigate the missing painkillers, but had left to go to an urgent job.

The court heard it was during those hours that Dean lit the blaze.