By Megan Gorrey
Joshua Scott Homann snatched two lives when he plunged a knife into his partner's neck and chest dozens of times while she was visibly pregnant with their daughter.
It was an act of domestic violence Kirralee Paepaerei's family said "only the devil" was capable of as they remembered the mother of four as "beautiful, smart, kind and outspoken with 'no filter'."
Kirralee Paepaerei was pregnant when she was stabbed to death in September 2015.
Homann, 40, sat with his head bowed as eight of Ms Paepaerei's distraught relatives spoke of the pain his crime unfurled on their family in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
A jury found Homann guilty of murder over the stabbing death of his partner of two years in the bedroom of their Mount Druitt home on September 21, 2015.
He inflicted 49 knife wounds to Ms Paepaerei's neck and chest before he jumped from a window and drove to a nearby police station, where he claimed he had been attacked in a home invasion.
Kirralee Paepaerei's stepfather Godwin D'Ugo wore a shirt in memory of his stepdaughter at her killer's sentence hearing.
Ms Paepaerei's mother and stepfather wore purple shirts that bore a photo of their daughter and the slogan "Say no to domestic violence", as well as an ultrasound image of their unborn grandchild and the message, "Taken with Mum".
Joyce D'Ugo told the court her daughter, who had four sons, had been excited to learn she was finally expecting a baby girl - "her little pink one" - whom she had named Mia.
"You robbed us of seeing, holding and really knowing little Mia."
She said her daughter, 37, had "a heart of gold" and was "there for anyone who needed her, even her worst enemy".
Her father John Ciappara said his daughter would have put up a fight against Homann's "cowardly and ferocious attack" in an attempt to save her unborn child.
"Why? Why repeatedly comes to mind, did you do this? I have no answers."
Godwin D'Ugo said Homann was "a waste of flesh" who stabbed and bashed his step-daughter "to satisfy your evil desires".
A NSW Supreme Court jury found Joshua Scott Homann guilty of murder earlier this year.
"This very intelligent human being was killed to satisfy a very disruptive human need. Only the devil is capable of doing this.
"When you are in prison, locked up in your cell, I hope you see what you did."
Her sister, Kylee D'Ugo blamed Homann for the loss of her best friend and the chance to hold her niece.
"You have destroyed my family beyond repair and I will never forgive you."
Another sister, Jodie D'Ugo, hoped Homann's guilty verdict would save another life by showing offenders they couldn't get away with their actions.
"Kirralee and Mia are safe now. No one can hurt them any more."
Crown prosecutor Sean Hughes said Homann had taken a hit of ice the morning of the killing and had been in the grip of a self-induced psychosis.
He said Homann had previously tried to cut his ear off with a box cutter after taking ice and must have known he was prone to violence after he took the drug.
Mr Hughes described the offence as above mid-range seriousness, noting the "ferocity and sustained nature of the attack" and the victim was pregnant and in her bedroom.
"She was entitled to feel safe from any physical attack."
Homann's barrister Peter Lange said his client had suffered mental health problems and "laboured under a state of mind that was far from ordinary" when he killed Ms Paepaerei.
Justice Lucy McCallum will sentence Homann on May 25.