"It is difficult to find the words to address or explain the apparent absence of regret, or indeed any genuine feeling approaching it, by a human being who has inflicted so much harm on a victim."
A full bench of ACT Court of Appeal judges made the remark to describe convicted attempted killer Daryl Allan Robertson in a decision published on Friday.
Acting Chief Justice David Mossop, Justice Belinda Baker and Justice Verity McWilliam denied the repeat family violence abuser's bid to reduce a 27-year prison sentence for attempted murder.
Robertson's complete lack of remorse, and the mockery with which he treated his brief and self-represented appeal proceedings, is especially despicable given the victim's eventual death from her injuries.
Without any prepared material, the man asked the court last week to reduce his custodial term because he was "a bit of a laughing stock at the moment with the sentence that I got" and he thought it was "a bit harsh".
His victim, Bonnie Lee Anderson, passed away earlier this year, 16 months after she was stabbed 11 times with a carving knife and relentlessly burned with a makeshift blowtorch in her own home.
Despite this, Robertson will not face a separate murder charge.
A prosecutor previously described the protracted and unprovoked attack as "sustained and torturous", "callous and vicious".
Robertson failed on both his appeal grounds - that the sentencing judge had erred in giving him a 10 per cent discount for a guilty plea, and the sentence was manifestly excessive.
Last December, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum found the attack fell into the "worst category" for attempted murder and Robertson had shown no remorse for his violence.
The man would have received the maximum penalty of life in prison were it not for his guilty plea.
"The callous cruelty that emerged on the evidence made it plainly open to the primary judge to find that the appellant had no remorse," the full bench said in Friday's judgment.
The recently published decision detailed how Robertson reported he "felt bad" when he saw the victim's injuries.
"And then stated that a way of preventing his unlawful behaviour from occurring again in the future was to find a more reliable partner, as her actions were the cause of his offending behaviour," the judges said.
"The lack of insight is disturbing."
The judges also addressed Robertson's submission that convicted murderers had received lesser sentences than him. The maximum penalty for murder or attempted murder is the same in the ACT.
"Where the attempt is grave, and was likely to succeed in effecting the substantive offence, the attempt may be punished as severely as a completed offence," the three judicial officers said.
"In the present case, for the reasons outlined above, the attempt was grave, and the harm caused extreme.
"It was well open to the primary judge to conclude that the appropriate sentence, prior to imposing a discount for the plea of guilty, was the maximum penalty prescribed by law."
Robertson will be eligible for parole in December 2042.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; MensLine 1300 789 978; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.; ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service 6280 0900.
