The family of murdered Woonona woman Angela O'Donnell say they have been "sentenced to deep grief" in the two years since she was killed by her partner, Petero Baleinapuka.
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A jury yesterday took less than an hour to find Baleinapuka guilty of the stabbing murder of Ms O'Donnell following a two-week trial in the NSW Supreme Court which heard harrowing details of her demise at the hands of the man she loved.
Ms O'Donnell's brother, Kevin Arrow, described his sister as a "loving, beautiful mother to two sons", whose absence was felt by all those who knew her.
"We lost our loving sister to a brutal, violent, cold-blooded murder on December 31 in 2019," he said.
"Angela is our only sister, my mother's only daughter and she is above all this, a loving, beautiful mother to her two sons.
"We are all devastated, deeply affected and severely upset about Angela's tragic passing. There are no words to describe the impact this crime has had on all of us. We have all been sentenced to deep grief."
Mr Arrow said his sister's tragic story as a victim of the most brutal kind of domestic violence possible, was all too common in Australia.
He called on the community to stand up and speak out against violence towards women.
"The events surrounding Angela's death remind us of the abhorrence of domestic violence and especially of violence towards women," he said. "We know across our nation, a woman dies every week at the hands of her partner.
"Our country should be outraged at the violence, totally without reason, which led to her passing.
"We appeal to the court of public opinion to stand up against this violent crime at Woonona, to say NO to violence against women and to say NO to domestic violence.
"This must stop. We must all do more to say and show that violence against women must stop."
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