Markets 
Tara Cosoleto
A heartless killer has been jailed for 17 years for fatally assaulting a woman who rejected him, and then setting fire to her home.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tinney denounced Timothy Loosemore’s callous disregard for Maree Vermont as he handed down his sentence on Friday afternoon.
Loosemore, 63, has still shown no remorse for his crimes, claiming to a jury that he did not harm Vermont or set fire to her Goldie property, 70 kilometres north of Melbourne.
But he was found guilty of manslaughter in June, with jurors convinced he fatally assaulted the 60-year-old mother of three on the evening of August 5, 2023.
He then set alight the home, which Vermont had spent decades building.
“Your purpose in doing all of this was to destroy the house and the body of Ms Vermont in order to cover up your crime,” Tinney said in sentencing.
Loosemore had met Vermont in March 2023 when she provided him a room in exchange for work on her property.
The pair had a brief intimate relationship, but five days before her death she told him she did not want it to continue.
Tinney said it was clear Loosemore had killed Vermont because he was angry and resentful that she did not reciprocate his feelings.
“She was a person who had shown you considerable kindness,” the judge said.
“You repaid her kindness by killing her.”
Loosemore had shown no remorse and instead demonstrated an “unnerving lack of concern” for Vermont in the immediate aftermath, Tinney said.
The judge noted he lied repeatedly to neighbours, police and paramedics, and even to his psychologist when he claimed he could not remember the night of the manslaughter.
“At all times you have known and remembered precisely what you did,” Tinney said.
“But you chose not to tell the truth because it would reveal your crime.”
The judge accepted Loosemore had no prior convictions and his prospects of rehabilitation were reasonable given the time he would have to reflect in prison.
But he said male violence was a scourge on society and Vermont was clearly a vibrant and much-loved woman who was unlucky to have met Loosemore.
“Your breach of trust in killing her was substantial,” Tinney told the killer.
“This was a heartless and terrible act.”
Loosemore looked down as he was jailed for 17 years. He will be eligible for parole after 13 years.
Outside court, Vermont’s son Darcy said the family was relieved the court process was finished.
“[The sentence] definitely doesn’t represent what we’ve lost collectively … but it’s something,” he said.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
AAP
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