Ashley Gordon's loved ones were meant to meet him for lunch one summer's day, but instead ended up saying goodbye to him in a morgue.
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When his sisters, niece and other family members set off from regional Victoria to Melbourne on January 13, 2024, they had no idea the beloved 33-year-old GP was already dead.
He had been stabbed by a 16-year-old boy in Doncaster, in Melbourne's east, in a knife attack that pierced his heart.
"You took my brother Ashley's life and in doing so shattered ours," Dr Gordon's sister Tammy Gordon told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
"I don't know how you live with yourself, knowing you have taken a life so viciously."
Victim impact statements from members of the Gordon family described the pain of an empty chair at family celebrations and loved ones struggling to come to terms with his death.
Sister Natalie Gordon's arm is covered with a tattoo of the brother she describes as her lifelong best friend, the person she thought would be there to help navigate life's toughest moments.
"Ashley and I were always in each other's corner. Now my corner is empty," Ms Gordon told the court.
She is pained knowing he will never have a family of his own and can't comprehend his life was taken by a teenager.
"If you ever come looking for forgiveness, do not come looking for me. I will never forgive you," she said.
Dr Gordon's mother Catherine said her life was without joy and like a nightmare from which there was no escape.
"There is such a gaping hole in my life. Nothing can fill it," her daughter Natalie said on her behalf.
The now-18-year-old killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in June convicted of murder by a jury and admitted to two counts of aggravated burglary.
The court previously heard the teen and a friend broke into Dr Gordon's home in Doncaster as the GP slept and stole several items.
Later on, the teen and three others returned, but this time Dr Gordon was awake and chased them out onto the street.
He got into his car, followed the group and caught up with them at a nearby carport where the boy stabbed the GP.
During his trial, the teen said he thought Dr Gordon tried to kill him with his car and continued advancing even when he pulled out the knife and said "I don't want to do this".
On Thursday, Justice Amanda Fox said she found the teen's evidence Dr Gordon had put his head down and ran at a person with a knife "implausible".
Defence barrister Amelia Beech requested her client stay in a youth justice facility as long as possible in the hope it would increase his chance of rehabilitation.
She raised his age and lack of prior convictions, describing the offending as spontaneous and not gang-related.
"We submit that there are early signs of insight and early signs of remorse," Ms Beech said.
Senior crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill described the stabbing as a ferocious attack and called for a lengthy prison term.
She said the teen's claim of self-defence was in dispute, telling the court Dr Gordon was barefoot and unarmed when he was killed.
The teenager will be sentenced later in 2025.
Australian Associated Press
