Speaking outside Wangaratta court on Friday, sister Leny Verbunt refrained from saying what she truly thought of Michael Cardamone, simply calling him a “sadistic sociopath”.

“I’m so glad that he got life, but it doesn’t bring Karen back,” she said.

“It’s such a relief – the whole way through your heart’s pounding waiting for that, so it’s great that Victoria’s set a new precedent like NSW. It’s about time too because with more and more people in the community taking ice and drugs, we’re just going to have more and more of these horrible situations in the future.

“They don’t even know what they’re doing, they’re out of their minds.”

The family sat through a two-day plea hearing where they heard about Cardamone’s regular methamphetamine use and the 18 different versions of the story he told police and the media, each time contradicting the one before.

“He wouldn’t even know the real story would he? He was just out of his mind,” Ms Verbunt said.

“There’s lots of things going on in Victoria all the time and our population’s growing as well and drugs are becoming a bigger problem, so we’re going to see more of these violent killings.”

She said she wanted her sister to be remembered as a loving mother.

“I just feel very sorry for her children mostly … they’ve got to live with this for the rest of their lives, it’s terrible,” she said.

Mother Clary Verbunt said the murder was senseless and described Cardamone as “a monster, not a man at all”. She said she had been very proud of what her daughter achieved as part of the Whorouly community.

Ms Chetcuti’s ex-husband Tony Chetcuti welcomed the life sentence without parole, saying the court proceedings had been hard on their teenage children, but they were taking small steps.

“It’s a good step forward, not to be released,” he said.

“There’s no closure, it will never go away.”