Bryson Anderson: Policeman's killers Mitchell and Fiona Barbieri sentenced to jail
A man and his mother who admitted killing police officer Bryson Anderson during a violent confrontation at their Sydney home two years ago have both been jailed.
Mitchell Barbieri was sentenced to 35 years in prison with a non-parole period of 26 years and his mother Fiona Barbieri was sentenced to 10 years in prison with a non-parole period of six years and six months.
Mitchell Barbieri, 21, had pleaded guilty to murder and his 47-year-old mother admitted manslaughter over the death of Detective Inspector Anderson who was stabbed during a stand-off at their Oakville home in December 2012.
The pair made their pleas on November 5, the day their six-week murder trial was due to start.
The NSW Supreme Court heard the pair barricaded themselves inside their house after a violent dispute with their neighbours, in which Mitchell Barbieri fired a number of arrows at their neighbours and a hired electrician.
Detective Inspector Anderson was among a group of officers who were called to the Barbieri home to intervene.
The court heard Mitchell Barbieri stabbed Detective Inspector Anderson several times with a 15-centimetre hunting knife as the veteran officer was trying to negotiate with the family.
The fatal wound penetrated 14 centimetres into the officer's right lung, critically injuring him.
Fiona Barbieri then came out of the house swinging a sledgehammer, according to police witnesses.
Detective Inspector Anderson was pronounced dead at Hawkesbury Hospital later that afternoon.
Judge acknowledges 'delusional thought processes'
In sentencing, Justice Robert Allan Hulme told the court NSW Police was poorer for not having Detective Inspector Anderson as a leader.
Justice Hulme said Fiona and Mitchell Barbieri had been living in squalor and without power or hot water for some time.
He said said they had cut themselves off and were largely dependent on each other for social support, and they had tried to seek political asylum in Italy and then in Russia.
The court heard that in the minutes before the pair killed Detective Inspector Anderson, they sent emails to a number of federal MPs and the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Justice Hulme acknowledged Fiona Barbieri had paranoid and psychotic delusions, and Mitchell Barbieri had been suffering transferred delusional disorder.
"One simply cannot ignore the fact she was largely driven by her delusional thought processes," Justice Hulme told the court.
He also conceded it was reasonable to accept that Mitchell Barbieri had a significant cognitive impairment at the time.
But he added the sentence must also reflect the "harm to the community [that] is always caused when events like this happen".
Outside court Detective Inspector Anderson's wife, Donna, said no amount of time in prison could undo the harm the pair had caused to her family and the community.
"His murder has left a hole in our family that will always remain," Mrs Anderson said.
"The impact of this crime on our family and Bryson's dearest friends is immense, and not one of us has been left unchanged by this senseless act.
"And we know this crime has affected the community, most of whom had never met Bryson, but felt the killing of a police officer represented an indirect threat to their own safety."
