Sydney: The parents of a murdered 24-year-old Indian girl have said their daughter was their `sweet little fairy`, and a happy `blessing` who was flourishing in Australia despite being separated from them in India.
Tosha Thakkar was living in Sydney and studying accounting when she was killed by her roommate, Daniel Stani-Reginald, an Australian of Sri Lankan heritage, in their Croydon flat in March 2011, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Stani-Reginald has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Thakkar, murdering her and putting her body in a suitcase which he dumped in a canal at a Meadowbank park . He was arrested a few hours after construction workers connecting an oil line found the suitcase.
Thakkar`s death triggered outrage in the Sydney Indian community and abroad and dozens of people protested outside court in 2011.
Thakkar`s parents, Varsabeen and Sunil, who travelled from India to attend Stani-Reginald`s sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday, said her death had affected them mentally and economically.
The victim`s parents said in a statement that Stani-Reginald has not only taken away their daughter, but has also "killed their life, all their happiness and health".
They said Thakkar was a trustworthy, caring, confident woman who enjoyed living in Australia.
Thakkar`s younger brother Dishang said he still found it difficult to accept that his sister was gone. He said he cannot express the "invisible pain" that he feels all the time.
Kenneth Nunn, who assessed Stani-Reginald at the Children`s Hospital at Westmead after he was charged with arson and malicious damage to property when he was 16, said that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after being physically assaulted by his father, who murdered his mother when he was a child.
Specialists who assessed Stani-Reginald after the murder, when he was 19 years old, concluded that he did not have a mental or personality disorder and was not suitable for involuntary treatment.
ANI
