Killer’s apology to family

MURDERER Brittney Dwyer has broken her long silence by apologising for killing her grandfather and destroying her family – saying she would “take it all back if she could”.

Speaking just minutes after her life sentence began, Dwyer revealed her feelings of isolation and her hopes of seeing her family again.

Through her counsel, she also took issue with her former co-accused’s tell-all TV interview – and the woman’s blunt denial that they’d had an intimate relationship.

“Miss Dwyer says ‘I am sorry and I would take it all back if I could’,” defence barrister Craig Caldicott said.

“She is effectively distraught ... she is going to spend the next 20 years in custody and that’s an incredibly long time for someone who has only just turned 20 years old.

“But she knows that, through her actions, she has lost her grandfather, her entire family and now her girlfriend, who will not admit they were a couple.”

Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson dubbed Dwyer’s lifestyle “chaotic” – plagued by drug-taking and consumed by her relationship with Shelby Lee Angie Holmes.

Holmes, 20, spent a week in prison for trespassing over her part in Dwyer’s first attempt to steal Mr Whitwell’s $111,000 life savings.

Holmes told Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program, screened last weekend, that she and Dwyer had not been in a relationship. Mr Caldicott said the interview upset Dwyer.

He also said Dwyer wanted to see her mother.

“She is going to be isolated from her family, friends and acquaintances because she is from Queensland, but will be in jail here in SA,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that, eventually, the family may resume contact with Miss Dwyer as it’s important to her ... she misses them.”