This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The shattered father of the four children killed in the Margaret River family shooting massacre says he still loves the man believed responsible for their deaths – their grandfather.

Peter Miles, his wife, Cynda, daughter Katrina and Aaron Cockman’s four children – daughter Taye, 13, and sons Rylan, 12, Arye, 10, and Kadyn Cockman, 8 – were found dead at the Miles’s Osmington property, north-east of Margaret River in Western Australia on Friday.

“I still love who Peter was. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have Katrina, I wouldn’t have her kids,” Aaron Cockman told reporters, speaking publicly for the first time since the tragedy. “So it’s not some random guy off the street who’s taken them away from me – he gave them to me and now he’s taken them away.

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“If it had to happen, there is no better person than that.”

Cockman, who was estranged from Katrina, said he had not spoken to Peter and Cynda “since they cut me off from my kids” but being angry served no purpose.

“Anger will destroy you,” he said. “I’m sad but I’ll get through this.”

The West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has expressed his distress at the Margaret River mass shooting that claimed seven family members.

“For me, this is one of the worst tragedies Western Australia has seen,” McGowan said at Osmington on Sunday. “Can I especially commiserate with those people who have endured the unendurable.”

He said he had spoken to Cockman and thanked police and others who are investigating the deaths.

McGowan defended Australia’s strict firearm laws but said he would wait and see if the coroner had any suggestions for legislative change.

“It was a farming property, in some ways there’s not much else that I can see from the outside that could have been done.”

The West Australian police commissioner, Chris Dawson, said the seven bodies had now been removed from the property but the investigation would be lengthy.

“I will not put a time frame on that but they will continue under the difficult and complex circumstances,” he told reporters alongside McGowan. He said he would not release the triple-zero call made about 5.15am on Friday.

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic violence helpline is on 0808 2000 247. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org