When the time came to send two like-minded sex killers to prison for life, the judge pulled few punches.

“You chose in the darkest and most violent way to satisfy your overpowering lust,” said Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas to Michael MacGregor, 22, and Tanya Bogdanovich, 34, the murderers of 27-year-old Sarnia school teacher Noelle Paquette.

“Your actions are vile and they are despicable and as a result you will be removed from the society for what might perhaps be for the rest of your lives.”

Their only decision worthy of some positive acknowledgment was that the pair who blissfully called themselves “a perfect match” for sexual violence, opted to plead guilty to first-degree murder, and accepting the only sentence available of life with no chance of parole for 25 years.

This spared Paquette’s family, her close cadre of friends and the entire Lambton County community the pain of a lengthy, painful trial.

Still, what the court was told this week about the sex lives of two twisted people and their scheme to rape and kill was shocking in its detail and scope.

Paquette was abducted by the pair at knifepoint from a downtown Sarnia street early Jan. 1, 2013, after she had left a party. She was driven to a woodlot more than 17 kilometres away where she was repeatedly raped and stabbed to death, her ravaged body, beaten and stabbed 49 times, left in the snow.

Neither MacGregor or Bogdanovich had any prior contact with the criminal justice system. They were, however, brought together for a mere seven months through a social networking site for people with sexual fetishes.

And their mutual interest was rape.

What remains unknown is how MacGregor, a college dropout who delivered pizza, and Bogdanovich, a mother of three and a registered practical nurse at a Sarnia seniors’ home, could justify in their minds expanding the boundaries of their sexual experiences to include murder.

It certainly is a mystery in MacGregor’s case who, by his own admission during his statement to the court, wondered “how I could do something so terrible and hurt so many people.”

He sat in the witness box at the front of the courtroom and, reading from a prepared text, said “sorry” seven times in a few moments.

“I would take it all back in an instant if I could,” the man who looks much younger than his age said. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done and the pain I’ve caused you all who loved her so much.”

His lawyer, Brian Grys, told Thomas that MacGregor, who was only 18 when he met Bogdanovich, is “at a loss from a psychological perspective to understand his actions.”

Thomas said he picked up on that lack of insight and explanation from MacGregor and everyone who spoke of him in his pre-sentence report. “It’s a bit chilling,” he said.

“There is just no explanation,” Thomas said, adding that MacGregor was just “a normal teenager” who had just left home for community college in the months before meeting Bogdanovich.

Thomas said his job is to look at an offender’s history and any previous incidents that could have led to their crimes. “Here’s there’s nothing,” he said. “Frankly, it scares me.”

Bogdanovich also spoke from the witness box, offering up a more free-wheeling statement, saying that her remorse deepened after hearing the victim impact statements Wednesday from Paquette’s family and friends.

“There’s no way ‘I’m sorry’ can scratch the surface,” she said, while some of Paquette’s family stood up and left the courtroom.

As she spoke, her eyes reddened, but there weren’t any tears. She continued on, saying she knew that there would never be “closure” for Paquette’s family but she still took responsibility for her actions. “You don’t fully see the all-encompassing pain until you hear it, until you witness it,” she said, referring to her reaction to the victim impact statements.

Bogdanovich acknowledged her actions “affected the security of the community where we all grew up.

“One night changed the course of many lives and it can never be undone,” she said, adding that this was “not who I am,” how she wished she’d had the courage to plead guilty sooner and how she “wants to make amends in any way.”

All this seems to have run counter to her pre-sentence report, entered as an exhibit at the sentencing where the author wrote Bogdanovich “stated that she knows she cannot take back what she has done, but feels that a lot of good in the community has come from this.”

Also mentioned in the report is her previous work as an escort before returning to school, and her enormous sexual appetite that had her with up to five sex partners a day before meeting MacGregor. She has a new “supportive and caring” relationship with a woman behind bars who also happens to be a sex offender.

Her defence lawyer, Natasha Calvinho, told Thomas that Bogdanovich was addicted to drugs as a teenager and was raped in a group home. “She never received the help she needed for that,” she said.

She called Bogdanovich “a troubled woman” who still has the support from her boyfriend who fathered her youngest child.

Outside court, Calvinho said “everybody needs to figure out why this happened” to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

MacGregor’s co-defence lawyer Mark Fahmy offered his own theory for his client’s extraordinarily violent crime. “Internet pornography has an inherent danger. . . . Certainly, this is not run-of-the-mill pornography, but anybody who says that pornography has no effect on people, has no inherent danger to people is simply wrong as this case clearly shows.”

Thomas, when handing down the sentence after a gruelling two days, looked long past explanations.

He spoke about the “extraordinary efforts” by average people and local police officers to find Paquette, how one tip from a local resident who saw blood near the road and the careful investigation by an OPP officer to follow up the tip and find Paquette’s body quickly led to a “mountain” of evidence and sealed the fate of the two murderers.

He praised the Paquettes for Noelle’s Gift, the charity named in her honour and the efforts to help children across Lambton County. “A legacy has been created, a gift that will ensure that those things that inspired Noelle will forever be attached to a memory of her. You should be proud of that.”

Thomas spoke directly to Paquette’s family and friends. He said many of them had “dark days and long nights” where they have sadly wondered if they could have changed the tragic course of events that night.

“Life happens,” Thomas said. “There is no way to reconcile or in a rational way understand how your beautiful girl ended up in that bush lot.

“The responsibility — all of it — lies with two persons in prisoners’ boxes here today. There is simply nothing any of you could have done about that.”

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/JaneatLFPress

STATEMENT FROM THE PAQUETTE FAMILY.

The following is the statement from Noelle Paquette’s family, read by her father, Roger, on the front steps of the Elgin County courthouse:

“At this time, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Sarnia police, the OPP, the Crown attorneys who worked on this case and victim witness services for their professionalism, compassion and hard work. It was a very difficult and emotional journey that they respectfully shared with our family. We are also very thankful for the love and support given to our friends and our community. This sentencing is neither an ending nor a beginning. It is a dramatic change in all of our lives. It is a message to everyone to be cautious but not afraid, to live life to the fullest and to love and be kind. Our memories of our daughter, Noelle, have given us the courage to live on (cries). We will cherish these memories of her love, faith, kindness, giving to others and freedom to dance through her legacy in Noelle’s Gift.”