A heartbroken son and daughter have confronted their father after he was found guilty of killing their mother almost two decades ago.
“She gave me her eyes, and lucky she did because you took hers,“ Nicholas Crossthwaite-Petrov said, as he turned to look back at his dad.
“Remember?“
He was aged seven when his mother, Cindy Crossthwaite, 41, was found dead in her Melton South home, on June 20, 2007.
Her 13-month-old baby, Jonas, was found alive metres from her body.
Jesmine was nine years old and her mother had been due to pick her up from school that day.
She saw a pool of blood and matted hair through the window of their home after the murder.
“The image of her has haunted me my whole life,“ she said, between tears.
“Sometimes it’s all I can see when I close my eyes.“
It took 17 years for their father, Emil Petrov, to be convicted over the murder.
The 61-year-old man, who had been on bail since 2019, was thrown behind bars after being found guilty by a Supreme Court jury on December 11.
The jury verdict indicated Petrov either commissioned someone else to commit the murder or committed the murder himself, the court was told.
Petrov, whom she had separated from in 2005, was fuelled by a hatred for Ms Crossthwaite amid a bitter court battle to separate their assets when he killed her, prosecutors said.
She was left for dead after being choked and shot in the head at close range.
Petrov appeared emotionless as he faced a pre-sentence hearing on Friday, as five of Ms Crossthwaite’s loved ones read out statements on the impact of her death.
Phillip Crossthwaite, who found his daughter’s lifeless body covered in a blanket, said he always suspected it was Petrov.
“I refused to give Cindy away at her wedding as I had an instant dislike of Petrov,“ he told the court.
He said having to identify her body, with eyes and teeth missing, was “the worst thing I ever did“.
Her best friend Julie Burfurd said Ms Crossthwaite had feared Petrov would kill her before the murder.
“I felt angry that her voice fell on deaf ears,“ she told the court.
“She was sure the police thought she was crazy.“
Defence barrister Ashley Halphen said Petrov, who continues to deny his part in the killing, acknowledged the jury’s verdict meant he was likely to spend a “substantial portion“ of his remaining years in prison.
He said Petrov had met his current wife more than a decade ago and she said he was a “good husband and very good father“ to their four-year-old son.
Mr Halphen said his client spent years living under “uncertainty“ as police did not charge him until 2019, and said this delay should mitigate the length of his sentence.
However, prosecutor Mark Gibson said the delay meant Petrov got to “live his life for all those years“.
Prosecutors were only able to pursue charges against Petrov once key witness, Brian O’Shea, agreed to testify about providing him with a gun.
Mr Gibson said Petrov’s actions fell into the worst category for the offence of murder.
Justice Christopher Beale will sentence Petrov, who is facing up to life in prison, on April 16.
Outside court, Nicholas Crossthwaite-Petrov said he looked his father dead in the eye and got “nothing“ back.
“If my child was suffering, I’d give a limb to help him, but nothing from that man, it’s not human,“ he said.
“It makes you lose faith in the world. I just want to be able to heal and he won’t let me do that.“
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