Judge throws away key for our worst mass killer, Roger Dean WITH his face turned from those left to mourn the devastation of his fatal fire, Roger Kingsley Dean yesterday received punishment befitting NSW's worst mass murderer. The Quakers Hill Nursing Home arsonist will never walk free from prison, with Justice Megan Latham saying a life sentence without parole was the only suitable term for such a "heinous, atrocious and grossly reprehensible" crime. The 11 charges of murder - his victims aged between 73 and 97 - and eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm over the November 18, 2011 fire make him the state's worst mass killer. Photo: Channel 9 It was a crime borne from Dean's panic to cover up the theft of 283 prescription painkillers from the home. The Supreme Court heard three residents died at the home while another eight died in hospital as their relatives watched them "succumb to burns and respiratory failure." In igniting two blazes, the registered nurse with more than 10 years' experience placed the people he was paid - and trusted - to protect in the way of unimaginable suffering.Dorothy Sterling and Dorothy Wu were asleep in their room where Dean set fire to an unused sheet, knowing both of them were immobile. He then ushered terrified residents out, calling them "darling" and telling them "we've got to get out." "For those who were unable to move independently and who faced the prospect of being burnt alive or suffocated by smoke, a worse fate is hard to imagine," Justice Latham said. It is simply not possible to adequately reflect the culpability of the offender for the deaths of 11 vulnerable people, whose care he was responsible for, by any lesser penalty. Details of the horrors inside the high-dependency wing as the fire took hold were met with tears inside the courtroom, which was filled to twice its capacity with relatives, friends and police officers. One woman fainted and had to be treated by paramedics. Justice Latham noted many of the families have struggled with guilt and a "profound sense of loss" over placing their relatives in a home where they believed they would be safe. (Their pain is) not just for the victim's life but for the lost connections with family, the lost opportunities for extended family gatherings and the telling and retelling of family stories that give everyone a sense of the past, a sense of place and a sense of self. Outside court some relatives embraced, others punched the air in jubilation but others were left with nothing but their tears. Holding a photograph of her grandmother Dorothy Sterling, Amanda Tucker (pictured below) said Dean's life sentence could never soothe the anguish of speculating what the 80-year-old's last moments were like. "Our memories aren't of a sweet lady who passed way of natural causes - we had to give DNA to know it was our grandmother," she said. My nanna never made it out of that nursing home. Every time we picture my nanna we wonder whether she was in pain or if she was scared or screaming needing help. Neeltje Valkay's daughter Elly said the life sentence gave her "a genuine smile, my first one" since the fire that killed the mother she had lived with for 25 years before putting her in the nursing home. "I hope he suffers as much in jail as my mother did in the last four days of her life," she said.