By ALISON HORWOOD and PAULA OLIVER
It was an outburst he had struggled to silence for 15 years.
But as Jules Pierre Nicolas Mikus was led away from the High Court at Wellington to spend his life behind bars, Ross Cormack could not hold his emotions any longer.
Looking directly at the
man who raped and took the life of his first-born child, he yelled, "I'll be waiting, you bastard".
As others in the public gallery joined in with "scumbag" and "I hope you rot", Mikus walked away without flinching.
The 44-year-old sickness beneficiary and father of at least seven children was yesterday sentenced to preventive detention for the rape of 6-year-old Teresa Cormack in Napier on June 19, 1987.
Preventive detention is the harshest penalty the High Court can impose.
Mikus also received a life term for murdering Teresa and 14 years each for abduction and sexual violation.
Wearing glasses and with his long hair loose around his shoulders, Mikus stared straight ahead and blinked frequently during the hour-long sentencing.
He did not acknowledge his only supporter, partner Shirley Te Kooti, who clung to a Salvation Army supporter directly behind him.
Teresa's family were joined in the public gallery by at least four members of the jury who decided Mikus' fate last month.
A wall of police and Department of Corrections officers checked bags and kept the public a distance from the dock.
In sentencing Mikus, Justice Warwick Gendall moved several people to tears as he recounted how "a child of tender years was lured and snatched".
Mikus smothered her to save his own skin.
For 15 years, he eluded police and bragged about how he had got away with it.
Speaking directly to Mikus, Justice Gendall said: "Well ... you have now been called to account and your day of reckoning has come.
"You deserve the condemnation and denunciation of the community, and of Teresa's family."
Probation and psychological reports showed Mikus to be a pathological liar of low to average intelligence who harboured dangerous fantasies, the judge said.
Unemployed for 20 years, he enjoyed the benefits of the social welfare system and "sponged off the taxpayers of New Zealand".
There was a high risk of Mikus re-offending and little hope of rehabilitation because he refused to acknowledge his crimes.
That made Mikus a clear-cut case for the indefinite prison term of preventive detention.
"I cannot envisage anyone releasing you," the judge said. "If I had the power, I would provide a minimum parole period of such length that women and children would never again be at risk.
"Your present attitude means you will never convince a parole board that you should be released."
When he turned to the subject of mitigating factors, Justice Gendall paused.
"I regret to say there are none. There are absolutely no redeeming factors. It's a dreadful thing to say about a fellow human being, but I regret to say it's true."
There had been references to an unhappy childhood, although Justice Gendall called them little more than excuses offered for crimes Mikus said he didn't commit.
Although Mikus had had no convictions for sex crimes since 1987, that might have been simply because he knew the police had his blood on a data bank, said Justice Gendall.
Mikus had consistently denied his sexual offending and lived in a fantasy world.
"Jules Mikus, let me disabuse you of your fantasies."
Mikus has 78 previous convictions. By the time he killed Teresa Cormack, he had three convictions for indecently assaulting a girl aged between 12 and 16, one for assault with intent to rape and one for having sexual intercourse with a 6-year-old girl, said Justice Gendall.
Victim impact reports from Teresa's parents, Kelly Pigott and Mr Cormack, made poignant and disturbing reading.
By taking Teresa's life, Mikus had handed them a life sentence.
Teresa's grandfather, who identified her body in the morgue, "died never having the satisfaction of knowing his grand-daughter's killer had been brought to justice".
Justice Gendall praised the courage and dignity displayed by Teresa's parents.
"Their courage is in direct contrast to your cowardice," he told Mikus.
After the sentencing, Teresa's family embraced one another and thanked the prosecutors involved in the case.
Ms Pigott and Mr Cormack also spent time with Justice Gendall in his chambers.
Shirley Te Kooti left the court accompanied by her Salvation Army supporter, who told her: "Keep your head up, dear. Just keep your head up."
Outside the court, the Cormack family spoke with relief that the case was finally over and that Mikus had received the maximum sentence available.
They had been driving from Hawkes Bay since 5am to attend court, and were looking forward to a few quiet drinks in Wellington before returning to Napier today.
"It's over. It's all over," said Ms Pigott.
Mr Cormack said: "It's time to put that stuff behind us. Get Teresa back to being our own again, not a public piece of property.
"It'll just be nice to have her back in the family again."
