'There is no forgiveness and there never will be'

ALEXIS Jeffery’s mother knew compassion and forgiveness before her daughter’s brutal death in Goondiwindi the morning of March 16, 2014.

ALEXIS Jeffery's mother knew compassion and forgiveness before her daughter's brutal death in Goondiwindi the morning of March 16, 2014.

Strangled with the pair of light blue denim jeans and her partially naked body dragged down a levee bank, Ms Jeffery's senseless death forever changed her family.

The man responsible for her murder, Robert Ian Trebeck, will face life in prison but will eventually be released.
For Ms Jeffery's mother Elana Jeffery, however, the pain of losing her daughter so savagely and senselessly will be a life-sentence.

Here is part of Ms Jeffery's mother Elana Jeffery's statement to the Toowoomba Supreme Court this afternoon:

"Since losing Alexis we have become isolated.

"People, even friends act differently when we mention Alexis and they often try to avoid the subject.

"We have found friends totally avoid us because they do not want to think about the fact that someone they know has been allegedly murdered.

"It is the realisation that this heinous act has touched them by knowing us.

"It is a case that by knowing us that their bubble of security has been breached because they think if it can happen to Alexis, it can happen to anyone, even their own children.

"Because of what has happened to Alexis and the way she was savagely stolen from us, we have been forced to live our lives through a mask."

Alexis Jeffery's mother Elana Jeffery. . Picture: Nev Madsen

Ms Jeffery said she had felt compelled to hide her pain from others to make them feel comfortable, and had watched her family struggle for more than two-and-a-half years in the wake of the murder.

She said she watched her son, Alexis' brother, grapple with the knowledge he would never share another moment with his sibling and only sister.

But it was the three children left to grow up without a mother from Trebeck's brutal killing of the 24-year-old that tormented her.

She dreads the day her grandchildren ask where there mother is, and why she can't be with them.

"I see my beautiful daughter as a mother and I am tormented by knowing that her children have been forced to grow up never knowing the love of their mother," she said.

"They will never be able to see her, to touch her or to ever feel her love for them nor to create special moments with their mother and biggest fan.

"I also live with the dread for the day when Alexis' children finally ask that question, 'what happened to mummy'.

"It is a hideously cruel thing for us to bear as parents, but for young children to lose their mother this way? That is unbearable."

Every day, she said, she watched Ms Jeffery's step-father Christopher Allen's pain knowing he would never walk her down the aisle or share special moments, instead having to plan a funeral instead of a wedding.

She will never forget the call from the Coroner or the knock from police, telling her Ms Jeffery was found murdered.

Nor the horror that waited when she viewed her daughter's body, refusing to believe it was true until she had seen it herself.

The trial had heard from forensic pathologists and scientific officers but the court was spared from viewing photographs.

That is now a horrific memory for Ms Jeffery.

Alexis Jefferys stepfather Chris Allen and mother Elana Jeffery leave the Toowoomba Supreme Court yesterday after Robert Ian Trebeck was found guilty of their daughter's murder the morning of March 16, 2014.. Picture: Nev Madsen

"I had to see her to make it real, to believe that this horrific news that they were telling me was true.

"Seeing stitches down to her nails, a wig on her head and thick make-up to try and hide the bruises on her face, all due to the actions of Robert Trebeck.

"They are all results created from the trauma Alexis Jeffery, my daughter went through for a reason I will never understand, from actions I do not understand which all come to one question why?"

She described Trebeck's actions as "wilful, hateful" which had taught her to "really hate, to be resentful, to be cold on how I look upon others" with no compassion for the man who strangled her daughter with her own jeans.

"It is every single moment of every single day that I think Alexis my daughter, Alexis a sister, and most importantly Alexis a mother should be here with us, with her children," she said.

"Robert Trebeck has dealt us a far worse punishment than any term of imprisonment could ever deal to him.

"Whilst he will serve his sentence and ultimately be released when this is done, our sentence is life-long.

"For this, there is no forgiveness and there never will be."

Originally published as 'There is no forgiveness and there never will be'