Sharon Lynn

The local community loved it.

hundreds and hundreds of, uh, hours of footage submitted.

Um,

But it was an awful thing for us to have to do.

You've been traumatized, you're grieving and you have to go do these pleas to the public for help because no one was turning themselves in.

And like that first Christmas was absolutely awful for us because we're sitting there without Martin and we know that the person who did this is out there having their Christmas as normal.

He was arrested about five months after the attack, released without charge.

And then it was a further year later before he was charged.

That was following a really long, extensive investigation by the guards.

Like they really...

put everything into trying to catch this person.

So yeah, it was a year and a half later, he was charged.

And then a further year later, before the trial was scheduled and essentially the day before the trial, he pleaded guilty.

It was on the last day of term before they break for Christmas.

And the trial was due to start in early January.

So we'd been through all the trial preparation, financially, emotionally.

And he put that plea in at the very beginning.

last moment and appears to have been generously rewarded for that guilty plea.

There was absolutely no remorse shown towards us.

There was no explanation, no apology.