Karen Lyons cannot bring herself to return to the loving home she shared with her husband since he was brutally murdered in their kitchen by a burglar.
If their two dogs had not protected her, she believes she would have suffered the same fate as her partner of 11 years.
David Gaskell had battled cancer for two years but was on the road to recovery when Dael Newman broke in through a kitchen window of their Manangatang home, in northwest Victoria, to steal cash and cannabis.
The 58-year-old was wearing an oxygen mask and watching late cricketer Shane Warne's memorial service with his wife on the evening of March 30, 2022, when they heard Newman in the kitchen.
Newman had returned after previously stealing cannabis from the house when Mr Gaskell and Ms Lyons were not home.
Mr Gaskell confronted Newman and told him to get out of his house.
Newman tried to attack Mr Gaskell with a Taser, but it did not work.
His two dogs started biting at Newman's legs and he grabbed a knife from the kitchen bench.
Newman swung at Mr Gaskell with the blade, stabbing him several times, including in his chest, face, neck and arm.
The burglar ran out of the kitchen to the front door where he encountered Ms Lyons, who was trying to call for help.
He slashed her middle finger and leg with the knife and she ran out the door to get help from the neighbours.
Newman stole $200 from the kitchen bench and ran out to a car, where his girlfriend and another man were waiting.
A neighbour tried to revive Mr Gaskell, but he died at the scene.
Ms Lyons believes their dogs protected her from more serious injury.
"If our dogs didn't protect me I would have ended up with worse injuries, I would have been dead too," she said, in a statement read to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
"I hope he rots in jail."
She has had to buy new clothing because she's been unable to return to their home since Mr Gaskell's death.
"We should have been safe in our home but we weren't, now I don't feel safe anywhere," she said.
Newman, 42, who has admitted reckless murder and causing injury to Ms Lyons, faced a pre-sentence hearing in Mildura by video link from prison.
Along with Ms Lyons, Mr Gaskell's uncle, brother, sister, mother and neighbour all expressed their heartache over his death in statements to the court.
The family had requested an open casket funeral for Mr Gaskell, but they were told this was not possible due to the brutal nature of his injuries.
Pam Gaskell had only recently reconnected with her son after he told her he was on the road to recovery following lung cancer treatment.
"For this to then happen to him is extremely cruel," she said.
Newman's barrister Raphael de Vietri said his client accepted the murder should never have happened, but claimed he had no intention of killing Mr Gaskell or injuring Ms Lyons that night.
He told police he "panicked as soon as the dogs got at me".
Newman will be sentenced at a later date.
