ST. THOMAS, ONT.—A man who admitted to brutally raping and killing an Ontario teacher while acting out violent sexual fantasies with his girlfriend apologized to the woman’s grieving family Thursday but stopped short of asking for their forgiveness.

Michael MacGregor, 22, turned to face Noelle Paquette’s family in the St. Thomas courtroom where he and his co-accused, Tanya Bogdanovich, were awaiting sentencing.

“I want to say sorry, I know I can’t change or take back what I’ve done no matter how much I wish I could,” he said.

“What I did was terrible and because of it Noelle is gone, when instead she should still be with you.

“I’m not asking for your forgiveness — I don’t deserve it and could never hope for it.”

MacGregor also apologized to his own family, saying he had let them down and planned to seek psychiatric help.

The couple pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of Paquette, 27, a stranger they abducted on a road as she was walking home from a New Year’s Eve party.

The offence carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

An agreed statement of fact read in court Wednesday said Paquette, from Sarnia, Ont., was “merely in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and though she tried to fight off her attackers, she was overwhelmed by their “violent sexually motivated desires.”

Court heard Bogdanovich, 34, and MacGregor met on a social networking site for people interested in BDSM, fetishism and kink in June 2012, and over their seven-month relationship, developed increasingly savage sexual tastes.

The pair chronicled their sexual desires and activities in pictures, videos and writings and by September of that year, were discussing their fantasy of abducting and raping a teenage girl. The statement said the couple’s plan fell through when their chosen target was unavailable and they decided to pick up a “random” instead.

Paquette had gone to a party with her boyfriend but stormed out after they got into a fight, court heard. She tried unsuccessfully to get a taxi and decided to walk home.

She last texted her boyfriend around 2:30 a.m., just moments before she was abducted, the statement said.

Her body was found in a woodlot on Jan. 2, 2013, less than 24 hours after she was reported missing by concerned family and friends.

An autopsy found Paquette died from the dozens of stabbing and incised wounds that perforated her heart, lungs, liver and other organs and slashed her throat.

“It was determined that she was still alive when she sustained these injuries but would have succumbed rapidly due to their severity,” court heard.

Police found Bogdanovich and MacGregor by the side of the road on New Year’s Day after their car broke down not far from the site of the killing.

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At the time, Paquette had not been reported missing and there was no reason to suspect the couple, court heard.

Suspicion quickly turned their way once her body was found and the pair started planning their escape, only to be arrested a day later.