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Widow tells of impact of husband's killing

Tim DorninAAP
The widow of a murdered Albanian cannabis grower has appealed for Australian government help.
Camera IconThe widow of a murdered Albanian cannabis grower has appealed for Australian government help.

The widow of an Albanian man bashed and killed during the robbery of a cannabis crop in Adelaide says she's been "psychologically and economically destroyed" by her husband's death.

In a victim impact statement read to the Supreme Court on Monday, Hajre Gjabri also begged for the Australian government to help her family as she struggled to care for a disabled son.

Ms Gjabri continued to live in Albania after her husband, Urim Gjabri, came to Australia to help provide for his family.

"I am writing with deep sorrow in my heart," she said in her statement translated from Albanian.

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"I am psychologically and economically destroyed. I have very little support from the government and that support is not enough, even to pay the electricity bills."

Ms Gjabri said her children also continued to ask for their father, who was "everything" to his family.

"He was a fine, and wise and hardworking man," she wrote.

"That's why I'm begging the Australian government, with a hand on my heart, to consider these three innocent children. Please help us."

In another statement a friend of the dead man, Stella Halilay said Mr Gjabri was a "weak man with a big heart".

"He was doing the wrong thing but that was not for me to judge. Life made him do things that I believe, deep down, were not in his nature," she said.

"He was a victim of his own destiny."

After deliberating for four days in October last year, a jury found Benjamin John Mitchell, Alfred Claude Rigney, Matt Bernard Tenhoopen and Aaron Donald Carver all guilty of the murder of Mr Gjabri who was found dead in his rental property in October 2018.

The 46-year-old, who came to Australia as a refugee, was found by a friend in a pool of dried blood.

During the trial prosecutor Rob Walker told the jury that Mr Gjabri died from severe blunt force trauma to the head.

His skull was caved in, with several fractures, Mr Walker said.

On the crown case, each of the accused were party to a plan to commit a home invasion or robbery because they went to Mr Gjabri's home and emerged with his cannabis.

However, the jury heard the prosecution could not say who actually killed the victim or how many blows he suffered.

On Monday, Justice David Lovell said he would sentence the four men on the basis that there was an act of violence during the course of the robbery.

But he also noted that the mandatory minimum jail term of 20 years still applied.

Justice Lovell will hand down his sentences later this month.

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