A man who stabbed his former partner to death outside a Sunshine shopping centre in broad daylight, hours after he was ordered to stay away from her, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
A jury unanimously found Craig McDermott, 40, guilty of murdering the mother of his four children, Melton woman Fiona Warzywoda, 33, in May.
The pair had previously been a de facto couple for 18 years.
Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon on Wednesday sentenced McDermott to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Dixon said McDermott had shown no remorse and called the murder a “brazen and deadly attack on an unarmed woman”.
“Along with taking the life of the person you said you loved, you have irretrievably damaged the happiness and stability of all of your children, and ruined your own future,” she said.
“All of that could have been avoided by adopting a degree of patience and restraint in the process of separating from your partner.”
The pair had left the Sunshine Magistrates Court hours earlier, where an intervention order against McDermott was finalised.
He had been refused access to their children at another court hearing a day earlier.
Ms Warzywoda left the court on April 16, 2014, and parked her car near the local shopping precinct, then walked to her solicitor’s office.
McDermott arrived shortly afterwards and parked his car near hers.
The judge said that despite previous homicidal thoughts, he had only planned to kill his former partner that morning, having let his anger towards her fester throughout a series of hearings over the custody of their children in the weeks beforehand.
The judge said the murder, in “public defiance of court orders which were designed to protect your former partner and family, is a reminder to all that it is because of the destructive actions of the few that the need for protective legislation has steadily increased in recent decades.”
“If you had obeyed those orders, your children would still have a mother and father to guide them through their childhood and adolescence,” Justice Dixon said.
A security guard outside the Federal Circuit Court previously testified that McDermott was visibly angry after one of the hearings and that the former postman had said outside court “I’m going to slice her”.
CCTV footage showed McDermott walking through the shopping centre, later hurrying back to a particular vantage point where he waited for Ms Warzywoda to return to her car and quickly jumping up shortly before he attacked her.
McDermott stabbed Ms Warzywoda six times with a knife, which he had bought minutes earlier.
He left her fighting for her life and she died at the scene.
A man who murdered his former partner in frenzied daylight attack in Sunshine has been jailed for max of 25 years pic.twitter.com/W21IK009tI
— Emily Angwin (@EmilyCAngwin) August 17, 2016
During the trial, McDermott tried to claim Ms Warzywoda was responsible for the attack, arguing she had arrived armed with the knife and that he had stabbed her in self-defence.
Justice Dixon rejected this, saying there was “overwhelming” evidence that he had bought the knife shortly before the incident.
McDermott had a history of family violence, spurred on by alcohol, the court heard.
A month after the couple separated in February 2014, McDermott also told two of their children he was going to kill their mother with a pocket knife.
In 2010, he grabbed Ms Warzywoda by the throat and pushed her to the floor when drunk. He also splashed petrol around their home and threatened to burn it down.
Outside court, Ms Warzywoda’s siblings said the family was pleased with the court’s decision.
Her brother, Paul Judge, said they were “really, really happy that he got a decent sentence and we’d like to thank everyone involved”.
Mr Judge said their family now had the chance to move on with their lives.
He hoped McDermott’s long sentence would deter others from breaching family violence intervention orders designed to protect women and their children.
“Family violence does need to stop,” Mr Judge said.
Jolene Warzywoda said she missed her sister and thought of her every day.
“She was a loving mum, a very caring person,” Ms Warzywoda said. “[She] would do anything for anyone.
“She’d give you her jacket off her back if you needed it … She was my everything, my big sister, my rock.”
The court heard that McDermott had been bullied for his “small stature” at school.
A psychologist testified that despite counselling for heavy alcohol use, McDermott had not suffered any significant long-term mental disorder.
By Jane Lee, The Age
