Gavin Perry sentenced to 27 years in jail for killing jeweller Dermot O’Toole

AN ARMED robber who killed 64-year-old jeweller Dermot O’Toole in Victoria has been sentenced to 27 years in jail.

Gavin Perry has been sentenced to 27 years in jail. Picture: Mike Keating.

AN ARMED robber who killed jeweller Dermot O’Toole in Victoria has been sentenced to 27 years in jail.

Gavin Perry, 27, was high on the drug ice and brandishing a knife when he burst into a shop in Hastings, a suburb on the Morning Peninsula, in July 2013. He pushed Mrs O’Toole into a cabinet and Mr O’Toole was stabbed as he rushed to protect his wife.

Perry must serve at least 23 years for the murder and he showed no emotion as he was led from the Supreme Court to jail, removing his tie before he left the courtroom.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said Mrs O’Toole was forced to watch her 64-year-old husband die.

“She had to watch her husband of 41 years die in front of her as he came to her defence,” she said.

Bridget O'Toole is haunted by the murder of her husband who was stabbed while trying to protect her during an armed robbery.

The Herald Sun has revealed that Perry had a ­“diabolical” criminal record and was released on parole months before he went on a spree of hold-ups that ended in the murder.

Perry had more than 160 convictions spanning more than a dozen years and spent most of his adult life in jail. A County Court judge once described his criminal past as diabolical.

In 2010, Perry was jailed for six years for armed robberies.

Perry pleaded guilty to murder, intentionally causing serious injury and three counts of armed robbery.