WHAT becomes of the brokenhearted, people whose lives are crushed by a savageness that society can't comprehend, let alone reverse?
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For the Gouldthorpe family whose only son Matthew was hunted down and slaughtered by Launceston thugs 10 years ago yesterday, life does go on but in what form?
The fog of grief wraps itself around people differently.
Matthew's sister wore his clothes around the house for weeks after the murder and a decade on can't bring herself to talk about it.
His father Howard buries himself in his work and mother Pauline suffers depression.
"You know that saying - 'time heals all pain'. I think the person that said that has obviously never lost a child because the pain never goes away," Pauline said this week.
Left behind are a thousand different triggers for a searing grief.
"You know that saying - 'time heals all pain'. I think the person that said that has obviously never lost a child because the pain never goes away"
"If I'm driving and somebody crosses in front of me I freak out because I just see Matthew being run over. And that has never gone away," she said.
"You don't deal with it. Sometimes you just don't deal with it. Sometimes it's just overwhelming.
"The little things that come up, somebody might say his name, or something you remember and then you just stop dead in your tracks and you have to go through that pain until you come through it and you start again.
"I made a choice when he did pass away that I can either go down with him or keep going on and make the best of it for our daughter. I said I have to be strong because if I'm not she's not going to be.
"But the pain never goes away. The pain of the loss ... that never goes away. Any mother who's lost a child would know that pain."
There is a lot of talk about therapeutic jurisprudence these days.
Rehabilitating the offender rather than a focus on punishment. Which is fine, the logic of trying to prevent further crimes by treating the underlying cause for offending is sound.
But what you don't hear so much about is restorative justice for victims.
What does Tasmania do for the likes of the Gouldthorpes?
And how well do we do it?
The Gouldthorpes have experienced individual and collective efforts to some small degree of restoration.
The Launceston restaurant where Matthew and his parents shared their last meal together a day before his murder orders in the same wine they drank that night every time Howard and Pauline visit.
The University of Tasmania has a memorial plaque for Matthew who was taking up aquaculture there. His school in Melbourne has an academic prize in his name. These things matter.
But as a state what do we do for the victims?
Why isn't there a support group for the families of murder victims in Tasmania like there is in Victoria?
And what of our parole system which the Gouldthorpes feel so burned by.
"We should be able to go to the board when it's sitting and have our say and let them know what it's been like for 14 years or so?"
"Let them hear it from us."