There are two things that Lee Lovell remembers about meeting the woman who would become his wife. The first is how gorgeous Emma was. Way out of his league, he thought. The second was his hair. No matter how much he tried to push aside the two curtains hanging into his eyes, they still fell over his face. Later, he and Emma would laugh about it. She would tease him — not only about his hair but about how it had taken a nudge from her best friend, Christina Lofthouse, to get him to ask her out. But from that first date, rollerskating at the local rink in Woodbridge, Suffolk, they were inseparable. Emma and Lee. Lee and Emma. Everyone said they were made for each other. She was 19, he was 21. Before long, they set off on an adventure to the other side of the world. Australia, with its glistening beaches, easy-going lifestyle and constant sunshine, quickly won them over. When they returned home to Suffolk six months later, the idea of living in Australia had taken seed. Though they married in 2006 and had two daughters, the pull of life Down Under did not diminish. In 2011, in their early 30s, they got their chance. As a plant fitter servicing heavy machinery, Lee’s skills were sought after. So, after the necessary medical checks, the couple with their daughters, Scarlett and Kassie then aged four and two, were granted a visa. They set up home in the Queensland city of Brisbane, where frangipani flowers scent the air and swimming is an almost year-round proposition. Of course, there was the inevitable emotional tussle brought on when your heart straddles two worlds, but the Lovells were happy. As Lee told the Mail last year: ‘I drove a lot for my job so I’d always be discovering new areas with stunning scenery or cafes or beaches. We’d go back at the weekends for breakfast or a look around.’ They spent Christmas Day 2022 at the beach with the girls, who by then were 15 and 13. They made bacon and egg rolls on the barbecue, walked, swam and laughed. Delaying a more formal Christmas dinner until the 27th, they headed to another seaside suburb for brunch on Boxing Day. As Lee would write on Facebook: ‘We were trying to start a tradition, to make some memories.’ But before that Boxing Day was over, their idyllic life in the nation long-regarded as 'the lucky country' would be shattered. Emma, 41, was violently stabbed in an alleged break-in and Lee, 44, trying to fight off the intruders, was kicked in the head and stabbed in the back. At 11.30pm, they heard their dog barking and, after checking the images from the security cameras around the house, they could see their front door was open. Lee recalls getting out of bed to investigate and, as he opened the bedroom door, he saw two people in his house. ‘It was one of those things where you just act, you don’t think about what you’re doing,’ he said. ‘I saw one of the guys there and tried to get him out of the house and then the other one was in our living room, coming back to our hallway. It happened quite quick, while I was being attacked on the floor, I think Emma was dealing with the other guy.’ Police would later report that a scuffle had broken out on the front porch where Emma suffered a stab wound to the chest. While he doesn’t remember being stabbed in the back, Lee will never forget turning around to see his wife had collapsed on the front lawn. He said: ‘Kassie had come outside and said, “Mummy’s bleeding.” I remember saying, “What do you mean she’s bleeding?” I turned her over and she was wearing a blue nightie but her whole left side was covered in blood.’ Lee shouted to the neighbours and phoned emergency services, becoming exasperated by the operator asking for more details. ‘You want to shout “just get here”,’ he said. Once they arrived, he could hear the paramedics working on his wife. Emma’s pulse, missing at first, had returned. He was trying to ring her brother David in Norwich, but the police needed his phone. When he was bundled into an ambulance, shock and adrenaline coursing through his body, he was told Emma would be following in another close behind. At the hospital, doctors took scans of his stab wound. All he wanted to know about was Emma. Where was she? Was she OK? As he said: ‘It had been some time and then this guy came in, like a nurse but dressed in black. He said the doctors had tried as best as they could, but unfortunately Emma hadn’t made it. ‘I’m like, “What do you mean, I’ve got to see her.” ’ As Lee recounts that heartbreaking night, it’s the aloneness that stands out. His wife, his best friend, the anchor of his family, had been murdered and everyone other than his daughters - the wider family who provide succour when horror strikes - were on the other side of the world. Of course, there were emergency workers but he had to say goodbye to his wife on his own. He said: ‘A social worker gave me a pamphlet about losing a loved one but it was aimed at, you know, someone dying through cancer. I didn’t have my phone and I kept saying I needed to get home to the girls to tell them what had happened. There was no support, no one saying they’d sit with me as I told them.’ It was in the early hours of the morning before he got to Scarlett and Kassie, who were being looked after by friends. ‘We need to talk,’ he told them, wondering how he was going to get the words out. His voice broke as he told how Scarlett made it simpler for him. ‘Did she not make it?’ she asked. But, while the girls were inconsolable, he felt disconnected. ‘Even when I saw Emma in the hospital, I’m not saying I didn’t cry, but there’s been a lot of times, especially when I told the kids and they were so upset, when I was just standing there, not crying, thinking, “What is wrong with me?” ‘My wife has just been murdered, the kids don’t have their mum and I’m just numb on the inside. I think we have preconceptions of grief from television and movies, but when you’re in shock or trauma your body does weird things.’ The intruders had fled the scene by the time emergency services arrived, but police quickly apprehended them at a nearby hostel. Within hours of the attack, they had charged two 17-year-olds with Emma’s murder. Officers said there were no known links between the victims and those in custody, but it soon became apparent that the accused were regularly seen in a nearby halfway house that accommodates young offenders and had been causing trouble in the weeks leading up to the tragedy. Police confirmed that the young men were known to them. One of the juveniles was on bail for a break-in and receiving stolen property when the tragedy occurred. Just days before Emma was murdered, one of the teens posted footage of himself and others driving allegedly stolen luxury cars. In March last year one of the boys, aged 17 at the time of the attack and who therefore cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to murder, burglary, malicious acts with intent and assault occasioning bodily harm. He was remanded in custody and later sentenced to 14 years with a minimum of nine years and nine months in prison before he would be eligible for parole. The other boy, also 17 at the time, was in October found not guilty of murder, manslaughter or malicious acts with intent. He was found guilty of burglary and assault. Emma’s murder has intensified an ongoing debate about youth crime in Queensland and, while stricter laws were introduced last year, Lee said they do not go far enough. ‘I want to see sentencing change because here they will only get up to ten years,’ he said. Citing the case of teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, who were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years and 20 years respectively by a British court for killing transgender 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, he said Queensland laws prevent a judge from sentencing a youth to more than ten years unless the court regards the crime as ‘heinous’. ‘If we end up walking out of the sentencing hearing with a ten-year sentence but they’ll be out in six and a half years because of time already served, I’ll be broken. ‘Someone has come into our house with a knife in their hand and murdered my wife. They could have pushed her over or given her a black eye or run off. No, they used that knife on her, so my view is, you made that choice you have to live with the consequences.’ He said he missed her calling him at work for a chat, holding her hand in bed and described an ache for what he lost when he saw other couples. ‘She was my best friend. I didn’t need anyone else in my life,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to be hanging out drinking or playing golf. I was just so content being with Emma and the girls. They were my world.’ Compounding the sense of dislocation is the tricky business of belonging. Thousands of Britons make Australia their home each year, but the beaches and the harsh glare of sunshine are no comfort when your world is upended. For the Lovells, Australia was the place where their girls had grown up, but the UK is home to their family and friends. As Lee said, Christmas was going to be particularly hard so the family flew back to the UK to spend the season with family and Emma’s best friend, Christina. The beautician from Ipswich, who introduced Emma and Lee, explained that the visit was bittersweet, saying: ‘Scarlett and Kassie remind me of Emma. I can tell them things their mum did when she was younger and remind them of things they did when they were little, like pointing out the place where Scarlett had a tantrum as a toddler and refused to walk.’ She and Emma had known each other since secondary school and were entwined in each other’s lives, binge-watching Neighbours and Home And Away, having babies around the same time, and sharing daily WhatsApp conversations, even when the Lovells moved to Australia. Christina, 42, had travelled with her family to Australia to visit them. ‘They were so perfect together,’ she said. ‘Even when I was there, they’d snatch moments to go on little drives just wanting to be together and have a little natter in the car.’ Christina, who flew over for Emma’s funeral, is not convinced that Australia offers a better lifestyle, just a different one. And, certainly, after what happened to Emma, she said neither she nor her husband Graham would contemplate moving there now. She remembers her friend by wearing an infinity bracelet set with Emma’s birthstone — she and Scarlett bought them together — and would send a kiss skywards whenever she saw a sunset. ‘I’ve got pictures of Emma in my house and so I see her smile every day,’ she said. ‘Considering the way she was taken from us, I’m learning to grow with grief.’ More than 10,000 miles away, Lee said he was doing likewise. Racked with distress over whether more could have been done to save Emma, he met with the ambulance service director, who reassured him that they tried everything, including heart surgery on the front lawn. In the first few months after the tragedy he thought he would explode with anger. Counselling proved useless. He stopped going to a psychologist because he felt he was being urged to contain his ire. He has found more solace in a homicide victim’s support group and listening to music. For months after Emma died, Scarlett and Kassie slept in their parents’ bedroom, but have since moved back to their own rooms. Scarlett likes to talk about her mum. Kassie doesn’t like thinking about that night, but Lee has reassured her that he is there whenever she needs him. Being both mother and father is hard, he said. ‘Like most girls, they would gravitate to their mum and the three of them would talk about school and boys and girl stuff. It’s sad because I can’t fill her shoes,’ he added quietly. ‘As much as I try to do my best, I’m not her.’