Bushfire family ‘annihilated’, court told

People who lost relatives in a deliberately lit Black Saturday bushfire have told a court of their pain.

Brendan James Sokaluk, 42, was last month found guilty of 10 counts of arson causing death over the fire at Churchill in February 2009.

At a pre-sentence hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday, Rhonda Jacobs, the sister of Alan Jacobs who died in the fire, told the court the fire was an “absolute annihilation of a family”.

Her sister-in-law Miros and nephew Luke were also killed in the blaze.

“I weep in the deepest places in my soul,” Ms Jacobs said.

Alan and Miros Jacobs’ son Grant Jacobs told the court he was now the only remaining member of his family.

“I have been left without my mother, left without my father and my brother who was my best friend,” he said.

“It was done by someone’s deliberate and ill-intentioned actions.”

Sokaluk is expected to be sentenced later this month.

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