I have found it so sickening reading and hearing the reports on the sentencing of the psychopath who sexually assaulted and murdered Juliana Herrera in her Christchurch home last January.

I’m not using the term “psychopath” loosely, either. Because, as it's being reported today, he was described in one of the reports prepared for the sentencing judge as having “anti-social and psychopathic personality features”.

And yesterday, this person was sentenced to preventive detention - meaning he will never be released from prison unless the Parole Board can be satisfied that he is no longer a danger to the community.

But the Board won’t have to worry about that for at least, 23 years, because that’s the minimum non-parole period that Justice Jonathan Eaton applied when he handed down the sentence.

If you could even come close to saying there was at least some good to come out of this, it would have to be the fact that this monster is probably likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Which will be of little to no comfort for Juliana’s family. Although, they did say in their statement yesterday that they hope history doesn’t repeat itself and with this guy locked up for good he, at least, won’t be able to do what he did that night last January ever again.

Like I say, I’ve found the details of what happened to Juliana in the last moments of her life harrowing and sickening. And, for that very reason, I won’t go into detail here.

But, essentially, what happened was that he broke into her house sometime after midnight on January 22 last year. Juliana had been using a sleep app that recorded night-time noises, which meant that the police and the court heard exactly what happened in the 10 minutes after she became aware there was someone in her bedroom.

It only recorded for 10 minutes because it was programmed to switch off after that amount of time.

Nevertheless, what was recorded was absolutely horrific.

Now we will never know this, because Juliana isn’t here to tell us. But it’s possible that even in those moments of terror, what happened wasn’t outside the realms of possibility for Juliana because, before she was brutally attacked and murdered, she had bad feelings about this guy.

He had moved in next door. And Juliana just didn’t like the look of him.

On the night she died she’d been out with a friend and, when she got a lift home, she noticed he was sitting outside his place next door and she got her friend to drive her up to her door and wait until she got inside.

As one of her friends told police, Juliana felt threatened by this guy.

Here’s what one of them said: “He gave her a bad feeling and she felt like she was being watched.”

Another friend said: “She was deeply concerned for her safety. She did not feel safe because of the neighbour.”

And she was right, of course. She wasn’t safe at all. She was in grave danger. And just a few hours after being driven to the door by her friend, Juliana’s fears were realised.

One of the tragedies in all this, is that Juliana’s fears and concerns were only based on her hunches about the guy. How she felt when she’d arrive home and find him watching her. Can you imagine living with that?

And I would guess that if she knew this guy who she thought was a bit of a weirdo had actually served seven years for a violent kidnapping and rape, chances are she’d find somewhere else to live or do something to protect herself more.

But she didn’t know. And just 72 days after getting out of prison, this monster of a person broke into her home, sexually assaulted her and murdered her.

At the same time as he was effectively sent to prison for the rest of his life, Corrections released its report into the case and pretty much said it did what it could.

Which may be the case. But it doesn’t change the fact that Juliana should have known about this guy’s past and had the opportunity to better protect herself.

But she didn’t. And the way things currently stand, the next Juliana out there won’t know either. And that, as far as I’m concerned, is shameful.

Yes, I get that if someone has done the crime and done the time, they deserve the opportunity to make a new life for themselves. But that should never come at the expense of someone else’s life. Never.

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