The widow of murdered police accountant Curtis Cheng says he was heartlessly robbed of a life he had worked so hard to build when a teenager shot him dead as he left work more than two years ago.
Selina Cheng spoke on Wednesday at the sentence hearing of 20-year-old Raban Alou, who the Crown says provided the gun used to kill Mr Cheng in a terrorist act outside NSW Police Headquarters in Parramatta in October 2015.
With her son and daughter by her side, an emotional Mrs Cheng said she was deeply hurt and utterly repulsed by those involved in the murder of her husband, who she remembered as "a good man, the gentlest of souls and of course a loving husband and father".
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"This heartless murder has robbed Curtis of a life he has worked so hard to build and this has created immense pain for us as a family," Mrs Cheng said.
"I no longer have a husband to hold and my children no longer have a father to nurture and guide them."
Mrs Cheng said she was enveloped by darkness and completely devastated when her husband died, and more than two years later her eyes still welled with tears when thoughts of him flashed back.
"Many nights I lie awake unable to sleep. I am still lost, still finding the way in life again. Sometimes I find it hard to control my emotions," she said.
Alou is facing a sentence hearing in Parramatta District Court after pleading guilty to aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a terrorist act by Mr Cheng's killer, Farhad Jabar.
Jabar, then 15, was killed in an exchange of gunfire after he shot Mr Cheng in the back of the head before firing at the police building and in the air while yelling "Allahu Akhbar", according to a Crown statement of facts.
