Denise Morcombe wakes from her nightmares, screaming: "No, no, I won't go with you."
The grief-stricken mother wrote of her ongoing pain a decade after losing her son in a victim impact statement, which was read to Brisbane's Supreme Court on Thursday.
"For years I haven't slept more than three hours at a time. I have lived and breathed each day to find the answers," Mrs Morcombe wrote.
Denise and Bruce Morcombe, with Daniel's brothers Bradley and Dean leave court after hearing the guilty verdict. Photo: Harrison Saragossi
"I have bad nightmares every couple of weeks, screaming at night, 'No, no I won't go with you'.
"Mr Cowan, only you know Daniel's last look in his eyes ... but I can only imagine."
Brett Peter Cowan faced trial for the abduction and murder of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe. Photo: Supplied
Brett Peter Cowan, 44, was convicted of murder, indecent treatment of a child and improper interference with a corpse in the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon, finally ending the near-decade-long hunt for Daniel's killer.
The month-long trial heard Cowan had lured Daniel from a bus stop on Nambour Connection Road at Woombye, offering to give him a lift to the nearby Sunshine Plaza shopping centre, which the teenager accepted.
Cowan instead drove Daniel to an abandoned demountable house in the Glass House Mountains, where he tried to molest him. Daniel died in the struggle.
"Your mistake was that you picked on Daniel ... and didn't realise that his mother would never give up searching for answers," Mrs Morcombe wrote.
"That was your mistake, you evil, evil, unhuman thing ...
"This day hasn't brought closure, but the streets are safer without you walking them and looking for your next target to destroy."
Mrs Morcombe recalled the afternoon her twin son, who had been born eight weeks premature, was taken from her.
"At 4pm, Sunday the seventh of December 2003, while getting Daniel's clothes off the line I knew something was wrong," Mrs Morcombe wrote in the statement read by Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne QC.
"Daniel wasn't due to return to the bus stop until 5.30pm, but for some unknown reason I was anxious. Hence, I went to see if he was there at 4.30pm.
"I don't know what it was, but I knew when Bruce returned home soon after 5.30pm from the bus stop without him, I knew I would never see him again."
Soon after the verdict was delivered, Daniel's father Bruce Morcombe forced down his own sense of disgust to face his son's murderer.
He returned to the witness box for the second time, having earlier testified at the trial, to read his victim impact statement to the court.
"Sitting in the same room as you revolts me," Mr Morcombe told Cowan.
"Ten years ago you made a choice that ripped our family apart ...
"But survive we did, because you made one monumental mistake that day, you picked on the wrong family."
Looking Cowan squarely in the eye, Mr Morcombe told his son's killer he had been exposed as an "opportunistic, perverted, cold-blooded, child-killing paedophile".
"It makes me nauseas thinking about your total lack of respect for a child's life, listening to you describe, and watching the smirk grow on your face, how you threw Daniel's body down an embankment and a week later you returned and crushed his skull with a shovel," he said.
"'Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,' you coldly explained, in an emotionless, matter-of-fact way.
"Central to the facts are not whodunit, but you-dun-it."
The court also heard the victim impact statements of Daniel's twin brother, Bradley, and his older brother, Dean.
Bradley wrote of buying his first car and his first house, moments that should have been shared with his twin.
‘‘Ten years have passed and milestone occasions are never celebrated like they should have been,’’ he wrote.
‘‘My 18th and 21st birthdays have come and gone without a double celebration. That hurts me.’’
Bradley wrote of his upcoming marriage in August, where Daniel should be by his side.
‘‘Daniel cannot join me for a beer or be my best man at my wedding,’’ he wrote.
‘‘Brett Cowan your selfish actions have hurt me in ways no one can imagine.’’
Justice Roslyn Atkinson is expected to sentence Cowan on Friday.
The grief-stricken mother wrote of her ongoing pain a decade after losing her son in a victim impact statement, which was read to Brisbane's Supreme Court on Thursday.
"For years I haven't slept more than three hours at a time. I have lived and breathed each day to find the answers," Mrs Morcombe wrote.
Denise and Bruce Morcombe, with Daniel's brothers Bradley and Dean leave court after hearing the guilty verdict. Photo: Harrison Saragossi Advertisement
"I see my son lying by himself in that dark, eerie bushland, being destroyed by wild animals ..."Mr Cowan, only you know Daniel's last look in his eyes ... but I can only imagine."
Brett Peter Cowan faced trial for the abduction and murder of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe. Photo: SuppliedThe month-long trial heard Cowan had lured Daniel from a bus stop on Nambour Connection Road at Woombye, offering to give him a lift to the nearby Sunshine Plaza shopping centre, which the teenager accepted.
Cowan instead drove Daniel to an abandoned demountable house in the Glass House Mountains, where he tried to molest him. Daniel died in the struggle.
"Your mistake was that you picked on Daniel ... and didn't realise that his mother would never give up searching for answers," Mrs Morcombe wrote.
"That was your mistake, you evil, evil, unhuman thing ...
"This day hasn't brought closure, but the streets are safer without you walking them and looking for your next target to destroy."
Mrs Morcombe recalled the afternoon her twin son, who had been born eight weeks premature, was taken from her.
"At 4pm, Sunday the seventh of December 2003, while getting Daniel's clothes off the line I knew something was wrong," Mrs Morcombe wrote in the statement read by Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne QC.
"Daniel wasn't due to return to the bus stop until 5.30pm, but for some unknown reason I was anxious. Hence, I went to see if he was there at 4.30pm.
"I don't know what it was, but I knew when Bruce returned home soon after 5.30pm from the bus stop without him, I knew I would never see him again."
Soon after the verdict was delivered, Daniel's father Bruce Morcombe forced down his own sense of disgust to face his son's murderer.
He returned to the witness box for the second time, having earlier testified at the trial, to read his victim impact statement to the court.
"Sitting in the same room as you revolts me," Mr Morcombe told Cowan.
"Ten years ago you made a choice that ripped our family apart ...
"But survive we did, because you made one monumental mistake that day, you picked on the wrong family."
Looking Cowan squarely in the eye, Mr Morcombe told his son's killer he had been exposed as an "opportunistic, perverted, cold-blooded, child-killing paedophile".
"It makes me nauseas thinking about your total lack of respect for a child's life, listening to you describe, and watching the smirk grow on your face, how you threw Daniel's body down an embankment and a week later you returned and crushed his skull with a shovel," he said.
"'Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,' you coldly explained, in an emotionless, matter-of-fact way.
"Central to the facts are not whodunit, but you-dun-it."
The court also heard the victim impact statements of Daniel's twin brother, Bradley, and his older brother, Dean.
Bradley wrote of buying his first car and his first house, moments that should have been shared with his twin.
‘‘Ten years have passed and milestone occasions are never celebrated like they should have been,’’ he wrote.
‘‘My 18th and 21st birthdays have come and gone without a double celebration. That hurts me.’’
Bradley wrote of his upcoming marriage in August, where Daniel should be by his side.
‘‘Daniel cannot join me for a beer or be my best man at my wedding,’’ he wrote.
‘‘Brett Cowan your selfish actions have hurt me in ways no one can imagine.’’
Justice Roslyn Atkinson is expected to sentence Cowan on Friday.
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