"You know it's so easy to light you guys up when you guys are sleeping, right?"
The man who uttered these words eventually went through with his threat.
While seven children were at home, a heavily intoxicated Roland Griffiths poured petrol onto his wife and set her on fire in front of her two teen daughters.
The girls tried to stop their stepfather and pleaded for him not to hurt their mother, Kylie Sheahan.
One caught on fire herself and suffered burns to more than half her body.
The 16-year-old yelled at Griffiths and took a petrol can out of his hands, as the man grabbed a lighter and threatened to burn their house down.
He held the lighter near the ground, set Ms Sheahan alight and then "everything kind of flashed", she said.
"When I woke up from my coma, I knew before anyone told me that my mum had died," she said, in a statement read to Melbourne's Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Ms Sheahan, 36, suffered burns to 91 per cent of her body and died in hospital four days after the March 2022 fire at her home in Albanvale, Melbourne's northwest.
Griffiths, 41, pleaded guilty to his wife's murder in February, the same day a jury was to be empanelled in his second murder trial, after the first jury was discharged in 2024.
He also admitted recklessly causing injury to the 16-year-old girl and assaulting a guard in prison.
Griffiths, who has a lengthy history of committing violent crimes, sat at the back of court for his pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday.
Prosecutor Erin Ramsay said Griffiths blamed his wife for the offending "by saying why didn't you stop me?" to her after the fire, she then lied to police and said he had tried to set himself on fire.
Ms Ramsey said this had aggravated the seriousness of his offending, as she called for him to be jailed for life.
Causing his wife's "excruciating death" in front of children was another aggravating factor, Ms Ramsay said.
"Mr Griffiths set fire to his wife, the person he was supposed to love," she told the court.
"Not only was offending witnessed by the two children, they both were actively trying to stop him from hurting their mother and he persisted in the face of that."
A 10-month-old baby and a toddler were rescued by two children, who will next year be given bravery award for their courage, Ms Ramsay said.
"Without their actions, undoubtably the two children would have perished in the fire," she said.
Griffiths had "taunted" his stepdaughter during the killing, after responding to the 17-year-old girl's pleas to stop with "I promise bub, I won't do it, I swear", Ms Ramsay said.
"Then he went over with the lighter, looked her in the eye and flickered it next to where she was standing."
The girl turned to face her ex-stepfather in court, saying he had called her mother "the love of my life".
"You killed Kylie Louise Sheahan, but don't even call yourself a dad or father because that is not what parents do. I hope you don't get out of jail ... because we're doing better without you," she told him.
Ms Sheahan's father Anthony said he missed his daughter, who always tried to do the right thing by her kids.
"No one has the right to take anyone's life, whoever they are," Mr Sheahan said.
"Whether Mr Griffiths was drunk or not, what gave him the right to put Kylie's life in danger?"
Griffiths' barrister Jacob Kantor said his client accepted he was facing a "substantial" prison term and the offending was "very serious".
He asked Justice John Champion not to jail Griffiths for life, but to hand him a "high term" with a non-parole period as he had pleaded guilty and it was difficult for him to receive medical treatment behind bars.
Griffiths will return to the court later this year for sentence.
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