Luke Close: Murder of Nowra man Garry Welsh sentence hearing
The family of a “frail, old man” fatally stabbed more than 50 times by his “drug buddy” has told the court “life will never be the same”.
The South Coast News
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The family of a “frail, old man” fatally stabbed more than 50 times by his “drug buddy” has told the court “life will never be the same”.
Luke Close, 33, was found guilty in a judge-alone Supreme Court trial of murdering Garry Welsh, 63, inside a Nowra unit on February 23, 2018.
In a sentence hearing before Justice Richard Button on Friday, a victim impact statement penned by Mr Welsh’s mother, Pat Welsh, labelled the day she learnt her son had been brutally killed as the worst of her life.
“I had already lost an adult son to an illness but to lose another in the most cruel and vicious way was very hard to accept,” she wrote.
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Mr Welsh was stabbed 52 times in an attack Close says he can’t remember unleashing, in an episode Justice Button described “what must have been a terrifying last few minutes (for Mr Welsh)”.
In the days before the trial Welsh’s mother first discovered the true extent of the horrific injuries her son had died from, writing in her statement she “was not prepared for what I heard”.
“I can’t for the want of trying erase that vision from my head,” she said. “It’s with me day and night. Not something a parent wants to hear but needs to know.”
Welsh’s sister Kim Gough, in a victim impact statement tendered to the court, said she was angry and sad that her brother was “being used” by Close.
The court heard Close was on bail at the time of the violence and had been making efforts to turn his life away from crime and illegal drugs.
An incident saw him leave his sister’s home and return to Nowra, a turn of events Mr Button said was “a shame”.
In a letter to the court and Mr Welsh’s family Close apologised, writing he was “sorry for taking Gary from youse” and “sorry for all the pain and heartache that I have caused”.
Close will be sentenced next month.