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<\/p>\nA close family member of a woman who was set on fire by her son has told a New South Wales court she hates herself for not being able intervene and now lives in a “continuous nightmare”.<\/p>\n
WARNING: This story contains details that may distress some readers.<\/p>\n
Shannon James Doble pleaded guilty in September last year to the January 2024 murder of his mother, 65-year-old Nerol Doble, at a Bribbaree property in central NSW.<\/p>\n
Doble, who was living in a modified bus on his mother’s property at the time, admitted to dousing Ms Doble with fuel and setting her on fire, as well as her house, following a disagreement regarding the use of a jerry can to fill up a lawnmower.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nerol Doble’s home at Bribbaree was also burnt down during the attack. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
During a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on Friday, the family member, who was 16 at the time of the incident, described how she went to Ms Doble’s aid.<\/p>\n
Visibly upset, she told the court Ms Doble was “the other half of my soul”.<\/p>\n
“I cherished [her] more than words can describe,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The hatred I have for myself for not being able to stop him \u2026 I live in continuous nightmares everyday.”<\/p>\n
She described having crippling anxiety in the years since the murder.<\/p>\n
“I hate that I could not prevent it. My life is full of struggle and misery,” she said.<\/p>\n
Justice Julia Lonergan told the woman her efforts were remarkable, given her age.<\/p>\n
“You were brave and strong \u2026 that day,” Justice Lonergan said.<\/p>\n
‘You’re going to burn’<\/p>\n
Ms Doble, who was also a grandmother, died in Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney the day after the attack.<\/p>\n
During her closing submissions Crown prosector Virginia Morgan from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions told the court Ms Doble was severely burned.<\/p>\n
“The suffering she must have endured,” Ms Morgan said.<\/p>\n
She said agreed facts tendered to the court stated that when Doble threw the petrol on his mother he said, “You’re going to burn, bitch.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Shannon James Doble pleaded guilty to his mother’s murder in September 2025. (Facebook)<\/p>\n
Murderer went ‘blank’<\/p>\n
Registered psychologist Vanessa Edwige was called to give evidence during the hearing and said she met with Doble twice earlier this year.<\/p>\n
She said Doble told her he had no recollection of the offence and that on the morning of the murder the sound of his mother’s voice had made him feel distressed.<\/p>\n
Ms Edwige told the court she believed Ms Doble’s voice acted as a trigger for a trauma-related dissociative response.<\/p>\n
“I believe he said he went blank,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He talked about being an outsider.”<\/p>\n
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Bribbaree is a small community in central New South Wales, between West Wyalong and Young. (Datawrapper)<\/p>\n
A statement delivered to the court on behalf of the family described the act as the “lowest form of humanity”.<\/p>\n
“It is survival most days. The trauma is horrific. We avoid social outings. It is exhausting to put on a brave face,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“There is no forgiveness, ever.”‘No expression of remorse’<\/p>\n
Doble was not present in court for the hearing but his representative, senior public defender Michael King, told the court there would be a lengthy sentence imposed for the murder.<\/p>\n
Mr King said deprivation during childhood had resulted in Doble having a personality disorder.<\/p>\n
“There is no expression of remorse about what happened to his mother,” he said.<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of the hearing, Justice Lonergan conveyed her condolences to Ms Doble’s family.<\/p>\n
She is expected to hand down a sentence nearly next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A close family member of a woman who was set on fire by her son has told a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,291807,291808,291809,291806,44,85241,291805],"class_list":["post-598244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bribbaree-house-fire","tag-bribbaree-murder","tag-justice-julia-lonergan","tag-nerol-doble","tag-news","tag-nsw-supreme-court","tag-shannon-james-doble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}