Emma Lovell with husband Lee and two daughters. Photo / Facebook / Lee Lovell
Emma Lovell with husband Lee and two daughters. Photo / Facebook / Lee Lovell
The husband of a woman murdered during a home invasion says justice has not been served after her teenage killer was jailed for 14 years.
Mother-of-two Emma Lovell was fatally stabbed in the heart after two boys, then 17 years old, broke into their family’s house north of Brisbane about 11.30pm on Boxing Day in 2022.
One of the teens, now 19, was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday having earlier pleaded guilty to murder.
Speaking outside court afterwards, Lee Lovell said no sentence would bring back his wife and the mother of their two teenage girls.
“(We) were thinking he’d get a life sentence,” he said.
Justice Tom Sullivan reserved his decision on sentencing for more than a week following submissions from the prosecution and defence.
He previously heard he could sentence the teen to a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment or up to 14 years if he found the crime to be “particularly heinous”.
Emma Lovell, 41, was killed during a home invasion in Brisbane.
The 14-year sentence was the maximum term the teen could receive given the circumstances of his offences.
On Monday Justice Sullivan found the teen met this threshold because of his criminal history, recklessness in choosing to arm himself for the burglary and making two attempts to stab Mr and Mrs Lovell before landing the fatal blow.
“This offending was atrocious and would create outrage in the community,” Justice Sullivan said.
Members of the Lovell family in the court’s public gallery gasped when Justice Sullivan announced his sentence.
The judge said he had taken the teen’s guilty plea, deprived childhood, remorse and potential for rehabilitation into account.
But he said it was not enough to diminish the teen’s culpability for offending that ordinary people would find “odious, highly criminal or wicked”.
“You saw the car in the driveway ... you must have appreciated the risk of people being in the house,” Justice Sullivan said.
The teen was also serving multiple probation orders at the time.
Crown prosecutor David Nardone previously said the teen stabbed Mrs Lovell with such force the knife blade snapped.
Security footage previously played to Justice Sullivan showed the teen testing the front door and finding it unlocked before entering ahead of his accomplice.
The teen soon after fought with Mr and Mrs Lovell while holding a knife.
The couple’s two teenage children, Kassie and Scarlett, were sleeping in the house when the co-offenders broke in.
Justice Sullivan said the daughters were standing over their mother’s body sobbing when police and paramedics arrived.
Open heart surgery was performed on the front lawn in an attempt to save Mrs Lovell’s life.
Defence barrister Scott Lynch previously said the teen grew up in a chaotic environment and was exposed to domestic violence, finding his only close friend dead from suicide.
Justice Sullivan said the teen had an extensive but previously non-violent criminal history with 84 offences that included 16 break-ins.
He said the victims’ statements had revealed the attack’s “devastating” effects on the family.
“The Lovells were ordinary citizens enjoying family life in their home where they are entitled to feel safe. What occurred violated that completely,” Justice Sullivan said.
The teen will be required to serve at least 70 per cent of the 14-year detention order, which will be eight years and five months after credit for his 500 days on remand.
