MICHAEL Ramsay thought he could never have a worse day than burying his two stepsons in the days after they had been killed in a horrific Lake Macquarie crash.
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Yet Mr Ramsay and his family say they have had to endure a six-and-a-half-year legal nightmare as they wait for the man allegedly responsible for their deaths to face trial.
And there is still no end in sight.
Luke and Ben Ramsay, aged 25 and 27, as well as 45-year-old Rodney Field were killed when the car they were travelling in left Freemans Drive between Morisset and Cooranbong, rolled and crashed into a tree.
It was December 4, 2010 and prosecutors have alleged that Joe Anthony Fenech was drunk and speeding when he lost control of the unregistered and uninsured Holden Crewman and killed the three men.
But Mr Fenech, now aged 53, has never had to face up to the three counts of dangerous driving causing death as his case is bounced around courts to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
At his latest court appearance in Port Macquarie on May 19, Mr Fenech was again found to be unfit and the NSW District Court referred him to the Mental Health Review Tribunal to determine whether he could become fit within the next year.
If he is not, and prosecutors still wish to proceed, the judge may finally decide to set down a “special hearing”.
His defence team had argued at earlier proceedings that he was unfit to stand trial because of impairments suffered from a severe head injury in 1989.
In what is believed to be the State's longest running court case still to be finalised, the Ramsays have spoken out for the first time about their long road through the justice system, telling Fairfax Media of the toll it has taken.
“It is like a festering sore where the scab keeps being ripped off,’’ the brothers’ stepfather Michael Ramsay said.
“We can't keep living like this.’’
The boys’ mother, Lee Ramsay, said the levels of frustration and despair had never waned in the nearly seven years since she lost her two sons.
“At first I thought it was an accident, and accidents happen, but my feelings have now turned to hatred,’’ Mrs Ramsay said.
“There is just no end in sight.’’
Mr Ramsay added: “I’m diagnosed PTSD, it has tipped my life and my partner’s life, my eldest daughter, my younger kids, it has completely wrecked us.
“It is something that doesn’t end.
“You think you might have been able to leave some things at the cemetery. But that is only the start of the nightmare.”
