Convicted murderer Allan Geoffrey O’Connor will spend the rest of his life in jail for what a Supreme Court judge termed “the most brutal slaying of three innocent people”.
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Justice Robert Hulme on Wednesday at Dubbo sentenced the 64-year-old to life imprisonment for the three murders at Hermidale in June 2015.
A jury found O’Connor shot and killed his 36-year-old former girlfriend Rebecca Webb, her new love interest Stephen Cumberland and his son Jacob at the Cumberlands’ remote property.
The family of the “inseparable” father and son told of their “horrific journey” of the past more than three years.
They greeted the sentence as a “positive outcome” for “the boys and for our family”, but said their anguish continued.
“No sentence will ever be harsh enough for what that animal has done to our boys and to our family,” Heather Poole, the sister of Stephen Cumberland, said.
“Even in jail, he will still have the joy of seeing and holding his loved ones.
“That is something we can never ever get back.
“Our family was stolen from us.”
The crime scene discovered on the morning of June 26 was “horrific”, the judge said.
In the judgment, Justice Hulme was satisfied O’Connor had murdered Stephen and Ms Webb “because of his base jealousy and humiliation”.
Jacob, 28, “was murdered simply because he was present” and had to be “eliminated as a potential witness”, the judge found.
“Allan O’Connor did not simply intend to kill - he intended to blast every essence of life from each of his victims by discharging his shotgun at their chest or head at close range, thereby to cause the most horrific injuries imaginable,” Justice Hulme said.
He found the case was in the “very worst category of murder”.
The judicial officer acknowledged the presence of family members and friends of Stephen and Jacob Cumberland, seated in the public gallery, and the mother and brother of Ms Webb, who watched via video link.
He said he was grateful to those who made victim impact statements at the hearing the previous day, in which they told of the loss the victims’ deaths had caused.
“The sheer senselessness of it is impossible to fathom,” Justice Hulme said.
“I am afraid that the question, ‘why’, has no sensible answer.”
O’Connor, who did not give evidence during the trial, showed little reaction when the sentence was handed down, before he was led back into custody.
Outside the court the Cumberland family offered its thanks to the representatives of the Director of Public Prosecutions for their “tireless efforts”.
“Their determination and absolute belief in justice has… seen this case result in this positive outcome for the boys and for our family,” Mrs Poole said.
“Job done.”
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