Death, murder, suicide destroy community

The Age

BEREAVED: Vicky Charter, who lost her husband and son after an accident sparked a chain of events that ended in murder and suicide.

Relevant offers

Australia

Lifesaver dies in competition Cyclone Ului doubles speed Obama postpones Aussie visit Perth fugitive jumps out of wheelchair, flees police Aussie Customs mix-up: iced tea, not drugs Man's leg torn off while fixing buggy Evacuation over Cyclone Ului Survival miracle after tanker 'flattens' car Disabled woman found screaming, tied to bench Raunchy teacher pics spark Facebook probe

Two families and their many friends in a beautiful Victorian country town remain bitterly divided more than two years after a death, a murder and a suicide ruined their lives.

Scores of ''wounded'' community members from tiny Harcourt and its idyllic valley surrounds, in the state's north-west, on Thursday sat in a Melbourne courtroom in tense but truce-like silence.

Vicky Charter sometimes sobbed softly, her body unmoving in the County Court seat, her face an aching image of one who has lost a son and then her husband.

Leigh Charter, 20, died on January 3, 2008, after his close friend Brenton Chaplin, then 20, speeding and affected by alcohol, lost control of a car in Seaspray while on holidays.

Victoria's chief prosecutor, Gavin Silbert, SC, said it was a tragedy, but its sequel ''can only be truly described as horrific''.

Before summarising the circumstances of the crime of culpable driving to which Chaplin on Thursday pleaded guilty, Mr Silbert outlined why the offence ''has effectively decimated two entire families''.

He said that on February 11 last year, ''in an act of revenge'', Mr Charter's father, Leigh snr, went to Chaplin's family home and murdered his mother, Wendy Chaplin, 44.

He also tried to murder Chaplin's father, his brother and his cousin ''in a frenzied knife attack'' before committing suicide.

Mrs Charter's victim impact statement spoke of a ''perfect life'' ripped apart, constant pain, living with a life sentence and praying ''I won't live to an old age''.

Her sons' statements mention their ''loving'' father lost without Leigh and so burned by his death he ''did what he did''.

Defence barrister Christopher Dane, QC, with Brendan Wilkinson, called the Reverend Gordon Bannon, who conducted a memorial service for Mr Charter in the Chaplin home after Chaplin and his family were refused permission to attend the funeral.

Reverend Bannon confirmed Chaplin's sorrow, regret and anguish and said he ''absolutely'' blamed himself for his mother's death.

Chaplin's grandfather, Ronald Frankling, revealed his grandson had told him ''it should have been me'' who was stabbed.

Mr Dane said the ''deep emotional wounds … clearly haven't progressed to scarring'' in a polarised and ''wounded community''.

He submitted that for the ''extremists, no sentence will be enough'', and warned Judge Ross Howie that whatever the sentence ''your honour probably can't win'' because ''anything less than life will not satisfy them''.

Mr Dane called for the families to reunite because ''there's got to be some harmony reintroduced to this community''.

He asked Judge Howie to ''play a benign part, not an exacerbating part'' in a case that called for the ''gentler and understanding'' disposition of a suspended sentence.

In reply, Mr Silbert declared there was no other punishment for culpable driving than immediate prison, but he agreed the sentence be moderated because of Mrs Chaplin's murder.

Chaplin, 22, a diesel mechanic, of Harcourt North, was remanded in custody for sentencing on February 15.