“She was life, she was fun, bright, bubbly happy; she was attractive inside and out”.
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Her young daughter’s energy could not be contained, the three-year-old spending the service running to her mother’s casket and skipping in the aisles in scenes both endearing and heartbreaking.
Dozens of people, some wearing homemade white ribbons and custom-printed T-shirts, gathered outside the Southport Church of Christ, where the service was held this morning.
Tara Brown, who was 24, died after she was run off the road and bashed while she lay trapped in the wreckage.
Police will allege the former Bandido was waiting for his ex-partner in the childcare centre vehicle park and pursued her between Nerang and the Molendinar Street where he allegedly used his black Jeep to run her Mazda 2 off the road.
She died the following day in hospital.
He was charged in a bedside hearing in the Gold Coast University Hospital where he had been admitted with stab wounds, believed to have been self-inflicted.
Lionel Patea spoke just two words when he appeared in Southport Magistrates Court via video link from prison on Wednesday, where an attempted murder charge against him was formally upgraded to murder.
Patea’s lawyer, Campbell MacCallum, told the court he was seeking assurances his client would receive access to a psychiatrist.
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The deaths have prompted the Queensland government to fast-track a number of measures designed to combat domestic violence.
