Melbourne’s Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas, 29, has received a life sentence for committing one of Australia’s “worst examples of mass murder”.
Gargasoulas sat emotionless as he heard his sentence at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday. He heard that he would spend at least 46 years in jail for using a stolen car to mow into people in the busy Bourke Street Mall on 20 January 2017.
He was found guilty on six counts of murder that resulted from his deadly driving and heard that he would spend at least 46 years in jail.
Justice Mark Weinberg delivered his ruling in a courtroom packed with grieving family members of the six victims. “This was one of the worst examples of mass murder in Australian history,” the judge said. “The horror of what you did has profoundly impacted the lives of those who were present that day.”
Victims also included minors such as three-month old baby Zachary Bryant, who was thrown 60 metres from his pram, and 10-year-old Thalia Hakin. He also injured dozens of others.
A letter by Gargasoulas was read to the court, where Gargasoulas insisted that he was not evil and blamed “government oppression” for his rampage. He also said that he had acted on the wishes of God, adding that he was in a “bad headspace”.
Gargasoulas had pleaded not guilty to killing the six people, but a jury in November took less than an hour to find him guilty of six murders and 27 counts of reckless conduct endangering life.
An earlier jury decided that Gargasoulas, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was fit to stand trial.