- Toutai Kefu and spouse Rachel survived a violent residence invasion
- Wallabies legend and household have been hospitalised after the assault
- Rachel nonetheless feels paralysed by concern from the traumatic incident
Rachel Kefu is tormented by vivid pictures of her Wallabies star husband Toutai and her son bleeding after youngsters armed with a cane-cutting sickle broke into their residence.
August 16 had been a big day for her household: in 2003 Toutai Kefu performed his sixtieth rugby union Take a look at match for Australia and their daughter Madison was born.
However 18 years later it was the date of a real-life nightmare, Mrs Kefu stated.
She was talking on Monday throughout sentencing proceedings within the Brisbane Supreme Courtroom for 2 boys, who can’t be named as they have been 15 on the time they broke into the Kefu household residence within the inner-Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo in 2021.
They’ve pleaded responsible to prices together with deliberately inflicting grievous bodily hurt referring to the invasion of the Kefus’ residence and the theft of a automotive from one other property on the identical morning.
Wallabies legend Toutai Kefu and his spouse Rachel (pictured) have been victims of a terrifying residence invasion that nearly left their household for lifeless in August 2021
Rachel Kefu (pictured with husband Toutai and their youngsters) stated she has been in a relentless state of hypervigilance for the reason that assault and has fixed flashbacks to the occasion
Mrs Kefu woke about 3am to the sound of automotive doorways earlier than discovering two youngsters inside the house.
The boys – one armed with a big cane-cutting sickle – demanded automotive keys, telling Mrs Kefu to ‘f**king shut up’ and threatening to kill her, the court docket was informed.
Woken by his spouse’s screams Kefu informed the kids to go away, with the couple gesturing to automotive keys in a bowl.
However as a substitute of taking the chance to go away with out violence, one teen struck Mrs Kefu with the sickle.
In the course of the battle that adopted Kefu was stabbed within the torso, their son Joshua was lower as he tried to intervene and daughter Madison was additionally injured.
A neighbour who got here to the household’s support, Ben Cannon, tackled one teen, pinning him down till police arrived.
Mrs Kefu stated she has been in a relentless state of hypervigilance for the reason that assault, feels paralysed by concern and sometimes sits at her bed room window for hours at night time.
‘I continually expertise flashbacks of the crime and I’m nonetheless tormented by the graphic reminiscences of my household preventing for lives, to outlive, that night time,’ she informed the court docket.
Rachel Kefu thought on the time that her son and husband have been fatally injured
Kefu performed 60 video games for the Wallabies and coached Tonga to the 2019 World Cup
Mrs Kefu stated vivid psychological pictures from the night time proceed to replay in her thoughts.
For a second through the assault she thought her son and husband have been fatally injured, she stated.
Joshua had deep cuts over his again and arms and blood throughout him, whereas Toutai Kefu had his complete hand inside his abdomen making an attempt to cease himself bleeding out, she stated.
‘I can not erase these pictures … it was so traumatic and continues to really feel painfully uncooked.’
Mrs Kefu sustained accidents to her dominant hand that aren’t anticipated to completely heal.
‘The knife wound was completed with such drive that it chipped the bone and several other of the nerves, tendons, ligaments and muscle tissue in my left forearm,’ she stated.
Police look at the scene of the house invasion which left the Kefus and their avenue in a state of deep shock
Calling for the utmost sentence to be handed down, she stated the kids are sufficiently old to know the distinction between proper and improper.
‘I imagine they should be held accountable for his or her actions as actions have very actual penalties,’ she stated.
Two different boys, aged 15 and 13, who have been within the automotive exterior the Kefus’ residence and who additionally took half within the earlier theft, have already been sentenced within the Brisbane Childrens Courtroom.
They have been sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ detention and ordered to serve 50 per cent of that.
The sentencing of the older boys is because of proceed on Tuesday earlier than Justice Peter Davis.
