He was told yes, that was a possibility.
"If he had only murdered Karen, we could say it was a moment of anger, but I'm afraid he attempted to murder somebody else 10 days earlier and I can't think that he is safe ever to be back in society.
"He has got a life sentence - a life inside prison."
Mr Aim, his wife and son travelled to New Zealand from the isolated Orkney Islands off Scotland to learn how and why their daughter and sister had died so violently.
Answers proved hard to find. Broughton's mother Eugenie - who has said she did not believe her son did the killing - would not meet the Aims, even after sentencing.
She said she did not want the pressure, Mr Aim said.
He was shocked by some of the things she told him when they spoke by phone.
"I said Jahche has put your family through terrible shame and our family through terrible pain, and she said `we are not ashamed'.
"I said `you have no shame?' and she said `no'. I couldn't understand that."
Broughton came from a family with criminal history, Mr Aim had learned.
"His uncle is inside prison right now for 18 years for murder. His mother had Jahche when she was 16, and she didn't bring him up - he's been in 13 foster homes...good foster homes.
"He's had good chances, but he himself decided to go down the road of the criminal."
At the sentencing, Broughton's lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith told the High Court at Rotorua Broughton "doesn't accept" he fatally hit Ms Aim, 27, in the back of the head with a baseball bat.
Broughton - who was 14 at the time of the attack - had pleaded guilty "because he was there".
He maintained a gang prospect named Brian was "mainly responsible" for the killing. Broughton's DNA was found on the dead woman.
He was alone when security cameras filmed him nearby smashing windows and doors around Taupo-Nui-a-Tia College shortly before Ms Aim was felled.
"There was never a shred of evidence anyone else was involved," sentencing judge Justice Graham Lang said.
After inflicting massive brain injuries on Ms Aim, Broughton pulled up her skirt, ripped her underpants and hitched up her clothes so that she lay exposed.
Justice Lang said Broughton went home with her handbag and digital camera.
In a "cynical move" he erased all of Ms Aim's photographs of her travels and took pictures of his own family and home.
He was also sentenced to six years to be served concurrently for injuring a 17-year-old woman with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.
That was a separate incident which took place a fortnight before the attack on Ms Aim.
That attack was on Zara Schofield, 19, who was also in court for the sentencing.
Ms Schofield has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and a slow-healing brain injury as a result of injuries inflicted by Broughton.
- NZPA
