Jay, our beautiful son, was the light in our lives, and we loved him so much.
He was our only child left; we’d lost our daughter 14 years ago to suicide.
He was the most beautiful, loving, caring, soft-hearted, cuddly, sweet little boy who grew into the most beautiful, loving, caring, sweet and compassionate gentle giant of a man you could ever meet.
He had the most beautiful smile, the most infectious laugh, and the most amazing personality; he was such a beautiful soul. Everyone who ever met our boy Jay, or ever crossed his path, loved him so much.
He made such an impression on you that you could never forget him and just wanted to be around him, as he was such an awesome person and so much fun to be around.
Jay was such a great friend to so many and would do anything for anyone that asked him, even if you didn’t ask him, as he could never and would never say no.
He would help and look after his friends before he looked after himself at times and that’s just the way Jay was, and we loved him so much for that.
He would give you the clothes he was wearing if you needed them which he often did, he would give you his last five dollars if you needed it which he often did, and left himself with no money, but that was Jay.
He gave many a place to stay when they needed it, very few people could or would ever say a bad word about our Jay. He was loved.
And now Jay’s been ripped away from us in the most horrific way.
You have taken him from us. You have totally ripped our lives and our hearts apart and they’ll never be whole again.
You had no right to do that.
You have devastated us, you have crushed us, you have destroyed our lives in so many ways and you could not even begin to comprehend our lives as they are now. We cannot sleep at night because what you have done to Jay torments our nights.
We take sleeping tablets to sleep and try and get through and try and get the thoughts out of our heads. We cry all the time, there is not a day that passes that we don’t cry and miss our beautiful Jay.
What you have done torments our days.
My wife Di, Jay’s mother, is so stressed out that she gets shingles.
There is not a day that passes that we don’t wish he was with us.
We wish we could see his beautiful smile; we wish we could hear his infectious laugh; we wish we could hear his voice, everything just one more time. We wish we could hug him; we loved his huge bear hugs so much and to kiss him and to just hear him say ‘I love you’.
He told us that every day, every single day … to just tell him that we love him one more time and let him know that we are so proud of him, but we can’t because you took him away from us.
Because of your betrayal to our Jay, you have done the most horrific thing possible to our baby. You planned to do this, you planned it all and he was lured (unwittingly) by you to his death in the most evil and sinister way.
You tricked him, you tricked him, Samantha.
We cannot stop thinking about how our baby would’ve felt when he realised what was going to happen to him. This torments us every day and it’s extremely hard for us to move forward in our lives.
He trusted you, Samantha. He liked you a lot and you liked him. You used to come to our home, Jay’s home, you would talk to Di and myself for hours day after day.
You would sleep with Jay at our home. Di and I would pick you up from your house and bring you down to our house so you could be with Jay, and we would take you home all the time when you didn’t drive.
You would eat with us, Samantha. Your betrayal of Jay has broken us and broken our Jay as he – as he paid for that betrayal with his life.
How could you do that? How could you betray him like that without a second thought? That’s just pure evil.
Our baby Jay was then dumped like he was a piece of rubbish and that haunts us and breaks us every day.
You knew exactly what you were doing, you drove away after leaving Jay in the bush, you covered up and hid what you’ve done to him.
You never once gave our son a second thought, you never once wanted to undo what you’ve done, never.
You said to the police, Samantha, that you thought the others were only going to beat the shit out of Jay which is disgusting.
What did he ever do to you other than like you?
You had a chance to come forward when it didn’t go the way you said you thought it was going to go, but you didn’t. You just played your charade and pretended as if nothing had ever happened, and you didn’t do anything wrong.
Our son, our baby Jarrad, laid in the bush for five weeks.
You knew we were so worried about him and tried so desperately to find him, pleading for someone to come forward and ease our pain, but you said nothing.
How could you do this without a second thought? How could you not come forward?
You meant it. You planned it. You planned to lure Jay out there in the middle of the night for whatever reason you told yourself. You were spoken to by police a week later and you didn’t say nothing. You didn’t even – you – don’t tell us you’re remorseful.
Diane and I are farmers. We know what happens to a body left in the bush for five weeks. We cannot get this thought from our head.
Jarrad was our child – our son. We couldn’t even see our baby after he was found.
We were not even allowed to say goodbye to him because of what you did.
We are so mentally damaged by this. You have taken away from us the most loved, beautiful and precious thing that we had in this whole world.
You have taken our child, our son. You have taken his life and that can never and will never be forgiven. You have taken his want for a beautiful partner – the right partner – that would one day have children.
For so long he wanted and needed that special lady.
He loved children so much and wanted to have his own so desperately that you have taken that away from him and us. You have taken away from us our grandchildren. We have, we have so longed for grandchildren to fill our house with so much love and laughter but because of your planned actions, we have no children now and will never be blessed with grandchildren.
We are so empty and broken.
Di and I feel so isolated because family and friends don’t even visit us anymore because they don’t know what to say to us. We are so broken so they avoid us. If we do see them, they don’t even ask us how we are because they don’t want to know the answer.
However, Jay’s friends still come to our home and talk to us because they feel close to Jay when they’re there. They cry when they are here because they are just at our home. They are at Jay’s home.
We are coming up to his third birthday without Jay and each birthday we celebrate his life with his friends.
We don’t shop in our local town because we can’t bear the pity of people’s faces. We can’t risk running into you in our local town. We live in a small community and there is every chance this could happen. Can you imagine how we would feel seeing you free and going about your life when our Jay is dead and you had a part in it.
I feel guilty if I feel happy. I feel guilty when Di and I go on holidays because Jay’s not with us. We can’t do the things Jay and I talked about doing together when we eventually sell the farm.
We used to cut wood together every week and I still cut wood now because I have to for our home heating but it’s just so hard without him. We used to fix fences on our farm. We would walk the farm with the dog and we used to hunt and fish together.
Everything I do on our farm reminds me of Jay. One of our great pleasures was cooking Jay food because he ate so much and he loved everything I cooked.
We would have left Jay everything – house, cars, possession, photos, everything. Everything we have left to Jay goes nowhere. There is no one left to pass it onto and the thought makes us cry. Our dynasty finishes now and there’s no one to look after us when we get old.
Because Jay was so big – 7 foot tall – no one could have used his clothes or bed which we had specially made, so I had to burn them and it was so hard because of you. I have kept some of his clothes and I wear them because I want to feel close to him.
Di and I don’t know what to do with Jay’s precious possessions.
He collected basketball cards, many Hot Wheels, buddha statues, comics and cartoon cards.
Jay lived in our granny flat only eight metres from our house so we saw him every day.
We just miss him so much. I found a short voicemail message on my phone from Jay and I play it all the time just to hear his voice.
If Di and I are out and catch sight of a very tall man or someone who looks like him, it upsets us so much we have to go home.
Jay’s funeral was during Covid-19 and only 50 people were allowed to the service. It’s so hard to call people and let them know who can come and who couldn’t.
It was heartbreaking that all his friends couldn’t come to his funeral to say goodbye because of you.
We hope, Your Honour, sees our extreme pain and loss for what you, such an evil person, has planned and done and puts you in jail for a very, very long time for your reprehensible actions.
Thank you.