Hunter Valley wedding bus crash: Brett Button jailed for 32 years

Nick Dinakis, who lost his girlfriend Darcy Bulman that night, was also left on the brink of death – with a broken neck, debris throughout his face “like shrapnel”, and a brain injury he is unlikely to recover from.

“You’ve broken me physically, you’ve scarred my body, and worst of all you’ve broken my heart and mind,” the 30-year-old said.

Button sat silently as victims told him how he had orphaned kids, turned partners into widows, and forced parents to bury their adult children.

“Touching [your daughter’s] cold arm in a morgue is something a father can’t explain,” Matthew Mullen, father of 26-year-old Rebecca Mullen, said.

The court also heard some of those affected were now too scared to drive and too physically and mentally destroyed to ever work again.

Speaking for the first time, Button apologised and said he’d struggled to express his regret and grief.

“I’ve tried to figure out the words to say I’m sorry, but how do you say you’re sorry for such a horrible tragic event that has ruined the lives of hundreds of people,” he told the court.

“I live with this every day and I hate myself.”

Judge Roy Ellis told the court he had never seen a case which had caused such “extraordinary devastation to so many individuals and families” in his 50-year career.

“The court hopes that there will be some closure for at least some of you,” he said, while handing down his sentence.

Button was convicted of 10 charges of dangerous driving causing death, nine counts of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm, and 16 counts of causing bodily harm by furious driving.

The Hunter Valley in New South Wales is known for its vineyards and native bushland and has a reputation as a wedding hub.

The tragedy shocked the nation and shattered the small regional town of Singleton.

Six of those killed – Nadene and Kyah McBride; Andrew, 35, and Lynan Scott, 33; Tori Cowburn, 29; and Rebecca Mullen – were locals.

Also killed were Kane Symons, from Tasmania, Zach Bray, 29 from Byron Bay, Angus Craig, 28, from Queensland, and Bulman from Melbourne.