It took more than an hour for prosecutors to detail all the beatings Graham Dillon had delivered to his son Bradyn.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They read out pages of the man's crimes, and then worked through a thick folder of photographs of bruises, belt marks, chipped teeth and cigarette burns on 9-year-old Bradyn's body; more than 70 marks, from his head to his legs.
On February 15, 2016, Dillon, who appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday for a hearing that would determine the extent of his jail time, killed his son with one last beating.
The boy's brain was already bruised and bleeding, when Dillon, 39, smacked the boy with a belt while he was bent over a table and then kicked him. Dillon then bashed his son's head, hard enough to fracture teeth.
Bradyn's brain bled again; he fell unconscious and never woke.
First, there was the forensic detailing of Dillon's crimes and the injuries on his son. "Photograph 75 is a photo of the right leg," a prosecutor read, "and what is described, is a raw wound."
Then, as emotional as the preceding hours were clinical, Dillon's victims took to the witness box to speak, and looked the man in the eye.
Bradyn's mother Rachel Jones sat in the witness box and told the court she was broken and desolate.
She said the "sheer look of enjoyment in your eyes" when Dillon abused those around him would haunt her forever.
"After Bradyn died, I had to make a conscious decision to live," she said.
"A mother is meant to protect her child, but Graham took that away from me, and made me feel I failed my children."
"You are a danger to society," read another woman, who Dillon had terrorised with assaults and threats for which he will also be sentenced. "There will be justice for Bradyn, and a lifetime of loneliness for you."
Throughout the hearing, Dillon, in a shirt and black pants and cropped blonde hair, sat looking ahead, or down with his elbows on his knees.
Ms Jones, who lives in Tasmania, was in the public gallery, reacting with both tears and nods, and at one point covering her ears with her hands before fleeing in sobs as prosecutors detailed her son's injuries.
Prosecutor Jon White SC said the defining characteristic of the case was how Dillon had breached the trust of those around him, including his child, whose sole custody he had "taken upon himself".
Mr White said the crimes were "nothing short of horrific".
"There's this very worrying aspect of this case, that the offender seems to wish to punish those he can control in the most sadistic and demeaning ways," Mr White said.
Defence barrister Ken Archer told the court the man had pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility for the crimes. He was instructed by Dillon not to minimise his actions.
"He's also aware that the community would expect your Honour to impose a sentence that will see him spend a long time in jail," Mr Archer said.
The barrister asked the judge to consider a sentence that would not crush the man under its weight.
As well as murder, Dillon pleaded guilty to choking Bradyn, to threatening to kill him, inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault causing actual bodily harm.
He has also pleaded guilty to multiple assaults against another woman, including inflicting grievous bodily harm and threats to kill. These offences pre-date by several years the crimes against his son Bradyn.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
