The brave parents of a pregnant mother-of-two murdered by her cheating ex have stared him down in court, branding him a “cold-blooded murderer”.
Benjamin Coman, 31, bashed and stabbed Michelle Darragh to death at the home they once shared in Bayswater North, Melbourne, in October 2021 as she collected her belongings.
Michelle, 32, was 12 weeks’ pregnant at the time and had moved out after Coman ordered her to have an abortion or leave him, the Herald Sun reported.
She had grown tired of his drug use and he had also cheated on her at brothels while she was pregnant with her two sons, who were three and 18 months old at the time of her death.
Unknown to Michelle, Coman had also spent most of the $100,000 they had saved for a house on an $82,000 Holden Commodore.
Michelle’s parents, Dianne and Ashley Darragh, faced Coman at Victoria’s Supreme Court on Monday at a pre-sentence hearing.
“Look at me,” Mrs Darragh ordered Coman, the father of her two grandchildren, as he averted her gaze in the dock.
“I will make sure your boys know that you are a cold-blooded murderer, and I will make sure that they will hate you forever for depriving them of a life without their loving mother and their little brother or sister.”
Mr Darragh found Michelle’s body after she failed to answer her phone.
He recalled how he phoned his wife while waiting for the emergency services, and said: “Hun, it’s our worst nightmare.”
He did not realise that Coman, lying nearby his daughter with a knife, was still alive.
Calling his former son-in-law a “monster”, Mr Darragh said his “life was ripped apart”.
“I hope the rest of your time on this Earth is a living hell,” Mr Darragh told Coman.
The hearing ended when Mrs Coman fell down a step in the court, leading an ambulance to be called. It will continue on Tuesday.
Coman has admitted murder.