CONVICTED murderer Lionel Patea has apologised for brutally killing his ex Tara Brown saying ‘she was everything to me’.
In a document released by the court, Patea said there are “no words that can possibly describe how remorseful” he was for Ms Brown’s death.
“Nothing I can say can bring Tara back. Nothing I do can do can get her returning home to us. If there was, I would do it in a heart beat.
CHAPTER 1: TARA’S EIGHT DAYS OF TERROR ON RUN
CHAPTER 2: FROM $250K BIKIE KING TO DEPTHS OF SUICIDE
CHAPTER 3: TARA BROWN’S DESPERATE ESCAPE PLAN
CHAPTER 5: THE LITTLE GIRL WITHOUT HER MUMMY
“I would like to apologise from the bottom of my heart to both sides of our family. Especially to her later father Patrick. Pat, I really let you down.”
Patea also apologised to his four-year-old daughter Aria.
“These events and outcomes are simply unspeakable,” he wrote. “I only have myself to blame.”
Patea described Ms Brown as “everything” to him.
“Those of you that were close to us all know how my sun rose and set for her. She was my everything. Still is. Tara was a dream catch.
“Life in jail is only part one of my sentence. Living our days without Tara is part two.”
Two families wept as Lionel Patea blankly admitted killing his former girlfriend Tara Brown in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
For Ms Brown’s parents, Natalie Hinton and Jonny Gardner, it represented the door to closure two long years after their “warm” and “trusting” daughter was bludgeoned to death.
Across the courtroom, Patea’s parents also cried, knowing their son would not be free for at least 20 years.
Lionel Patea yesterday pleaded guilty to brutally bashing Ms Brown with a metal fire hydrant cover as she lay helpless in the car he rammed off the road in Molendinar on September 8, 2015.
The former Bandido sergeant-at-arms, who was handcuffed in the dock, was emotionless as crown prosecutor Carl Heaton QC detailed the horrific events that led to Ms Brown’s death.
Defence barrister Scott Lynch told the court Patea did not remember the “incident” because he had been self-medicating with “illicit substances”.
Throughout the hearing Patea appeared blank. It is believed he was heavily medicated throughout yesterday’s sentencing.
His expression did not change even when Ms Hinton faced him in the dock and told of the impact her daughter’s death had on her family and the pair’s daughter.
One of the first people at the scene of the crash, who the court asked not to name, told of his regret for not being able to save Ms Brown after he helped Patea remove the windscreen of her car.
“The cross for Tara is near my house so I do see that and I will say hello to Tara as a walk past,” he wrote in his victim impact statement.
Sentencing Patea to life imprisonment, Justice Debra Mullins said he should understand the enormity of robbing his own daughter of her mother.
“She (Ms Brown) will not now have the joy of seeing her daughter grow up ... your daughter has been deprived of the love and nurture of her mother,” she said.
Patea also pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
He was sentenced to two years jail for the dangerous operation and two months for the unlawful use. Patea was also sentenced to a further five years behind bars due to the domestic violence nature of the offences. All sentences are to be served concurrently.
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