John Makita

And so, you know, we would like to hope that through the victim impact statements that we can get the judge to give us a maximum sentence or something that would be acceptable or palatable to our family after waiting for so long.

Especially considering that

I think most people will say in their impact statements that we have lived a life sentence of 25 years waiting without any knowledge of what had happened to my grandparents whilst these two offenders have lived their best years of their lives.

And whilst they might be a little bit older now, I think and I'd like to hope that that's taken into consideration, that it's time for them to do the time to pay for their crime as to what they did to my grandparents on that night.

No, we don't.

Look, I'll be upfront and 100% and say no, we don't.

We still don't know how these two men found out about my grandparents.

And that's going to be something which will continue to niggle at us and not allow us to have full closure as a family.

They're somehow people who lived all the way on the other side of down south in Melbourne had found out about my grandparents back in the first incident when they were robbed.

And who told them?

Was it my grandparents by slip of mouth or was it, you know, a family member?

Was it a friend?

During the actual trial, a number of things came out about, you know, various people who could have potentially said something or been involved.

And at this stage, we don't expect that we may never know, unless, of course, the two offenders are the only two who do know.

If they truly are remorseful and in a position to tell us how they had found out, I think that would be the end of, after obviously the sentencing for the Who Killed Emma campaign and for what had happened to my grandparents in 1999.

It's very important.

I think it was more so the fact of just knowing now who.

Not knowing who it was for 25 years before they had been arrested is obviously something that was much harder to live with.

But, you know, certainly having a conviction, having them behind bars, and there are members of the family who would quite openly say to you that they want them to die behind bars now.

More so for myself, it's just justice that now it's finally been served.