Sharron MacKenzie's life was reduced to an "ocean of tears and sleepless nights" when her husband was one of four Victoria Police officers killed by a drugged and delusional truck driver.
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Mohinder Singh, 48, has pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing the deaths while the officers were impounding a Porsche on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway in April 2020.
Ms MacKenzie, the wife of Kevin King, wept on Thursday as she told Victoria's Supreme Court he was her soulmate, best friend and a devoted father of three sons with a "heart of gold".
They had met as teenagers, she said, and her life had now been shattered.
"I'm here today a broken person," Ms MacKenzie said.
"Since the day of the incident I've not allowed the man responsible for this crime to have any part of my energy or being - he's not deserving. His actions have taken Kevin away from us and have drained the life out of my family.
"I still feel the devastation and absolute heartbreak when I told my children their father and hero would not be coming home and that he'd lost his life in such a horrific and senseless way.
"For the first time in my life I understood the feeling of choking pain - deep and utter despair."
The husband of Lynette Taylor, another of the four officers killed, said he met her in 1989 before the pair got married in their backyard two years later.
Stuart Schulze said he and Ms Taylor were inseparable and could talk about anything "unless it was boring or football".
"I'll never forget the dreadful spectre of three uniformed figures at my door," Mr Schulze said.
"I have moved now to a long, cold autumn."
The horror crash killed constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney as well as Senior Constable King and Leading Senior Constable Taylor.
Const Humphris' partner Todd Robinson directly addressed Singh, who faced court in person for the pre-sentence hearing expected to last two days.
"Mohinder ... you took the most important person away from me in the most violent way," Mr Robinson said.
"My body feels shattered and my heart is empty."
The officer's mother, Katie Tyson, said she had to turn her phone off on Wednesday, when her son would have turned 33, as she was too grief-stricken.
Const Prestney's brother Alex told the court he died "without dignity".
Court documents previously showed a witness told police Singh had not slept for eight days prior to the crash.
The truck driver had also been "talking nonsense" about being chased by witches.
"I had never seen anyone as drug f***ed in my life," the witness told police.
Singh reiterated this fear to police after the crash.
"I was tired, couldn't sleep (because) I was seeing that witch, that witch ... put a spell on me and I couldn't sleep at all," he told officers.
Court documents also showed Singh had been engaged in a "sustained period of extensive drug use and trafficking", interspersed with work and limited sleep, all of which "culminated in significant levels of fatigue and impairment".
The Eastern Freeway crash marked Victoria Police's worst loss of life in a single incident.
Australian Associated Press
