from her bed but died soon after.
‘Shortly after that, mum’s body shut down and I never heard her voice again,’ Ms Webeck said. ‘For 11 days and nights I sat with mum watching her body decline. I would sing her the lullabies she would sing to me as a child.’
The daughter of 90-year-old victim Neeltje Valkay spoke to the ABC’s 7.30 Report for an episode that aired on 25 May 2013 – the week that Dean pleaded guilty. Elly Valkay spoke of her mother’s last days: ‘She knew I was there and she grabbed my hand. She held on very tight. And that was three days and it was horrible. The most terrible time. I still have nightmares.’
Dean was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. In sentencing Dean, Judge Latham said the number of deaths alone was enough to put his offences in the ‘worst-case category’.
‘The fact that these murders arise out of the offender’s reckless indifference rather than an intention to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm does not detract from these principles,’ Judge Latham said.
‘The pain and terror experienced by all the victims must have been horrific. For those who were unable to move independently and who faced the prospect of being burned alive, or suffocated by smoke, a worse fate is difficult to imagine.’
While Judge Latham pronounced the sentence on Dean, the courtroom was packed with family, friends and supporters of the victims. They cried and applauded when the life sentence was announced.
Amanda Tucker, the granddaughter of victim Dorothy Sterling, said Dean had ruined her family’s happy memories of their gran.
‘Our memories aren’t of a sweet lady who passed away from natural causes. We had to give DNA to know that was our grandmother. He stole our memories,’ Ms Tucker told reporters following the sentencing hearing.
Joining Dean in the NSW prison system’s ‘never to be released’ category is fellow ex-nurse and marine Walter Marsh, who stabbed Michelle Beets to death outside her Sydney home.
Ms Beets, who was also a nurse, was Marsh’s manager at Royal North Shore Hospital. Marsh brutally slit Ms Beets’ throat and stabbed her because he was angry at her decision not to renew his contract in the emergency ward of the hospital. Marsh’s employment status affected his Australian work visa and without a job, he would have to return to the United States and pay child support to his ex-wife.
Almost a year after Dean’s sentencing, Anglican minister Geoff Bates, who knew Dean well, gave some insight into the notorious killer’s life before his horrible crime.
Mr Bates spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald for a first-person piece called ‘Night of Infamy’ (26 February 2014).
Bates said he had met Roger Dean in 2009 when the church door-knocked in the community and had encountered Dean French. Having shared a conversation with Mr French, the church members left some bible reading materials with him, which he later showed to Roger Dean. Dean found some connection with the tracts and started to attend church and some fellowship groups.
‘He was certainly unusual. He was noisy, and needy. And he was chaotic. I don’t think he was understood in his life, and I don’t think he understood himself,’ Mr Bates said.
‘I’ve seen the footage from the incident and in it he lights a fire the size of a 20-cent piece and moves on. It’s not as if he moved in with an AK-47 and shot those people. I would have thought murder was an intention to kill. Even people who light bushfires usually have the intention to harm. This doesn’t fit.
‘Dean’s actions were ordinary and the consequences were extraordinary: extraordinarily horrific. I think Dean got the right sentence. At the same time I don’t think he murdered anyone.’
Mr Bates applied his Christian beliefs and knowledge of Dean to try to make sense of the nurse’s actions… but how could anyone make sense of the selfishness and desperation that was in Dean’s mind that night?
However, Geoff Bates said he believed he had seen evil in Dean’s actions.
‘I’m convinced I’ve seen evil. In Western countries we don’t talk a lot about evil. It’s an old-fashioned notion. But I’ve seen it in the destruction caused on that day in 2011.’
In 2015 an inquest was held into the fire and the findings were damning of the operators of the nursing home.
It was revealed during the inquiry that Quakers Hill Nursing home did no employment or background checks on Roger Dean before they employed him. Dean had not included his most recent employer on his CV (St John of God Hospital in Sydney) and there was a reason.
The inquest revealed shocking details of Dean’s past employment record and past behaviour that infuriated the families and friends of the people he killed.
In another job, Dean had previously stalked a colleague and caused criminal damage to their car by pouring paint over it putting nails in the tyres. He had also turned up visibly drug-affected to a work shift and had to be sent home.
Among NSW deputy coroner Hugh Dillon’s findings was a recommendation for Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to set up a healthcare workers database that would include information about a person’s disciplinary history or drug or alcohol abuse that could affect patient and fellow staff safety.
There were many learnings from the inquiry for aged care operators. The Fire and Rescue Service of NSW (FRNSW) issued advice in the wake of its experience at the fire.
Based on the difficulties evacuating the residents from the Quakers Hill Fire, including corridors that were not clear, residents who’d hidden under beds and out of sight making it difficult to locate them and the fact that no call was made to Triple Zero (000) to confirm the fire in the first instance, the FRNSW issued advice to aged care operators after the inquest findings.
These included having a clear emergency plan that considered the ‘evacuation of non-ambulant patients, such as those connected to medical equipment’ and ‘In extreme situations residents may need to be carried or dragged to safety’.
The FRNSW also reinforced the urgency of calling 000 so the right resources could be sent to an incident. In the case of Quakers Hill, firefighters turned up under-resourced because the staff relied on the fire alarm and didn’t back it up with 000 to explain the situation further.
It was made devastatingly clear that the Quakers Hill staff were not adequately prepared to do a mass evacuation and the emergency plan did not adequately consider the complex needs of their residents – some were visually impaired, had dementia and limited mobility.
He also recommended better design for aged care facilities including adequate fire exits to accommodate hospital beds and corridors with enough space so rescuers and staff can evacuate people safely. A ramp installed at the Quakers Hill site caused problems for staff and fire fighters while trying to evacuate the residents; it was later discovered there was no permit issued for it to be installed.
In 2018 the families of the people killed by the blaze started by Dean launched a class action lawsuit against Opal Aged Care (formerly Domain Principal Group), the operators of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home.
A similar case to Roger Dean’s occurred in the United States where a healthcare worker was accused of starting a fire at an aged care facility. In 1976, a 21-year-old nursing assistant and housekeeper was charged with arson and murder after a fire tore through the Wincrest Nursing Home
