A young man who stabbed a couple and their 16-year-old daughter more than 100 times in a frenzied attack after he became sexually obsessed with the girl has been jailed for 35 years.
Jason Alexander Downie pleaded guilty to murdering Rosemary and Andrew Rowe and their daughter Chantelle after entering their home in the South Australian town of Kapunda in November 2010.
"The evidence satisfies me that you went there to satisfy your desire to have a sexual relationship with Chantelle Rowe," Justice John Sulan said in sentencing Downie to life, with a non-parole period of 35 years.
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Downie, 18 at the time of the murders, knew Chantelle from school and had become increasingly obsessed with the teenager who had been dating one of his friends.
After entering the house, he stabbed Andrew Rowe at least 29 times and his wife about 50 times, so violently he left a metal fragment lodged in her skull.
Chantelle Rowe was stabbed 35 times and raped, with the judge noting there was blood in almost every room in the house, on the walls and covering the floors after the murders.
"The crimes to which you have pleaded guilty are truly horrific," Sulan said. "To describe the attack on these victims as a savage attack does not adequately describe what occurred in their home."
The court heard he had raped Chantelle as she was dying of the stab wounds he'd inflicted.
The judge said while Downie had pleaded guilty, he had initially given police conflicting stories and for a period after the events had joined grieving relatives and friends.
The surviving member of the Rowe family, Chantelle's older brother Christopher, said there was no justice given the circumstances.
Another relative, Sally Rowe, told the ABC he should have been jailed for longer.
"I hope he goes to hell," she said.
