BRIDGEWATER - Penny Boudreau's only words Friday were "I'm sorry."

 Asked if she had anything to say before the judge sentenced her to life in prison for the murder of her child, that was all the 34 year old offered.

 She instructed her lawyer to say nothing to the throng of media gathered at the Bridgewater courthouse. When Pat Atherton spoke on Ms Boudreau's behalf in court, it took only two minutes.

 "What demons plagued Penny Boudreau on the date that happened, I do not know. Perhaps she and God only know," he said of the January 27, 2008, killing of 12-year-old Karissa.

 "I think it is fair to say that given what has happened that she has done the only thing in a practical sense that can perhaps provide some very small measure of reparation for the crime, that is she has entered a plea of guilty," he said.

 "She wishes that she could have that day back again," Mr. Atherton added.

 Ms Boudreau wiped tears from the time she entered the courtroom until the time she left, but some were not convinced her regret was genuine.

 "Crocodile tears," her former husband and Karissa's father, Paul Boudreau, said after court, echoing the judge's earlier comment. "That's all it's ever been and that's all it ever will be.

 "I can't call it anything other than a senseless act. I mean, the options were there. For a parent to make that decision, I still can't comprehend it."

 Karissa had been living with Mr. Boudreau in Shelburne County through the summer of 2007 and into November. She chose to return to Bridgewater to live with her mother and Vernon Macumber.

 "Had I known this was going to happen, I would have never, ever let her go back, but I mean what parent's going to say 'no you can't go back and see your mother,'" Mr. Boudreau said.

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 From the time his ex-wife reported their daughter missing, Mr. Boudreau said he had his suspicions.

 "I wasn't fooled for a second from Day 1. That's been the hardest part of this whole thing, is playing along with the game until I saw it unfold," he said.

 "Any parent knows their child and when their child does something way out of character, you know from Day 1 it's not true."

 Mr. Boudreau was present at two press conferences in 2008, on January 29 and February 1, when his former wife made tearful pleas for their daughter's safe return.

 Police had warned him in advance about the details he'd hear in court Friday, yet it was still difficult for the family. His brother Shane, who had been Karissa's stepfather for a time, was also present, along with Karissa's paternal grandparents and members of the extended family.

 "My brother loved her just as much and spent more time with her than I did. He was just as much of a father to her as I was," Mr. Boudreau said.

 Mr. Boudreau had never lived with his ex-wife and daughter as a family. The couple split before the child was born.

 Mr. Boudreau said he's spent a lot of time with the children in his neighbourhood who knew Karissa, children who shouldn't have to hear that their friend had been murdered. The experience gave him strength.

 "Justice has been served and it's a time for the family now to move on and try to, I guess, situate their lives without her."

posted on 02/03/09