Daughter shot in head, stabbed and dumped in bushland
A WOMAN whose daughter was fatally shot in the head has told of her anguish and how she now sits outside the murder scene to grieve.
null
Don't miss out on the headlines from null. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A WOMAN whose daughter was fatally shot in the head has told of her anguish and how she now sits outside the murder scene to grieve.
"I feel frozen in time since the murder of my daughter Penny," Julie Pratt told the Supreme Court yesterday.
Aaron Anthony Gibson, 32, has pleaded guilty to the murder of Penny Pratt, who was shot three times in the head and stabbed twice.
Her body, bound and wrapped in a rug, was dumped in bushland near Olinda in November last year.
"I can't come to terms with the way Penny died, the violence she suffered, the pain, the fear," Mrs Pratt told the court yesterday in her victim impact statement.
She said she often drove to the property where her daughter was killed and sat in her car to grieve.
"I don't know how any other human being could treat Penny the way they did. The horror of the murder is beyond most people's comprehension," she said.
The court heard Ms Pratt, 27, a mother of two, was shot in the jaw, but survived. She pleaded for her life before two more shots were fired.
She had earlier made two frantic 000 calls saying she feared for her safety. But the calls were not passed to police, the court heard.
At one point Ms Pratt said the operator's questions were "going to get me bashed", the court was told. A short time later Ms Pratt was threatened by Gibson.
"Ms Pratt saw the gun and pleaded with Gibson. She yelled, 'Don't, don't, you don't have to do this'," prosecutor Mark Gibson said.
"Gibson told Ms Pratt to shut up. He pointed the firearm at the right side of her face and pulled the trigger. Gibson shot the deceased in the right side of the jaw, shattering it."
She was then shot twice more.
Though the motive was unclear, it may have involved about $150 owed to Ms Pratt, Mr Gibson said.
Mrs Pratt said she wanted Gibson to face just punishment: "Justice for Penny is in the court's hands."
The hearing, before Justice Katharine Williams, is due to resume next year.