Stephanie Scott and her fiance Aaron Leeson-Woolley.

Merrilyn Scott said her daughter was only days away from beginning a “beautiful” life with fiance Aaron Leeson-Woolley when she was killed.

She told the Supreme Court in Griffith sentencing of Vincent Stanford, 25, she whispered “good night to my girl” in the dark at night, but then when she closed her eyes the nightmares began.

“Did she see the knife? Did she see his fists as he beat her to oblivion?” Mrs Scott said in court.

Mrs Scott said Stanford was “pathetic” and lived an “inept life” and had no right to take Stephanie’s life.

She said he waited at work for Stephanie and his evil plan “swung into action”.

“He should not have been there but such is his arrogance he did as he pleased.”

Mrs Scott said the family struggled that the last person Stephanie saw was a man she had only ever been “polite to”.

Mrs Scott said as a contract cleaner Stanford had access to at least six schools and he showed “many behaviours that should have raised red flags” before he went onto kill her daughter.

She spoke of the heartbreaking days after Stephanie’s charred remains were found in the national park and how the family gathered with Leeton locals for a picnic to celebrate her life on what was supposed to be her wedding day.

Instead of beginning her life journey with Mr Leeson-Woolley, she was “alone” in the morgue and about to begin a journey to the coroner at Glebe in Sydney.

Mrs Scott told of standing in a room “full of coffins” trying to pick one for her daughter who was at the height of her “happiness and loveliness”.

When they finally got her body back she was so damaged the “body bag wasn’t to be opened”, another blow for her loved ones who were desperate to see her one more time.

Ms Scott left her home in Leeton in the NSW Riverina region on Easter Sunday last year, interrupting her wedding preparations, so she could plan lessons for her English and drama students while she was on her honeymoon.

Vincent Stanford is escorted into Griffith Local Court today. Picture: AAP/Paul MillerSource:AAP

What was supposed to be her wedding day six days later, when friends and family who had gathered to watch her say “I do” to longtime partner Mr Leeson-Woolley, was instead used to celebrate her life at a picnic lunch full of yellow, her favourite colour.

An interview with Stanford has been played to the hearing in Griffith today.

In it he calmly tells a detective; “I went a little nuts” when asked what he did to Ms Scott.

He told the officer of trapping her and throwing her to the floor in a storeroom.

“I chucked her to the floor and beat her to death,” he said.

He said he used a knife — and there was so much blood, he later used a high pressure hose to wash it all away.

He said she was struggling and trying to yell as he grabbed her around the waist and covered her mouth.

Just moments before she had told him to have a “happy Easter”.

In the interview, police officers repeatedly asked him why he killed Ms Scott.

He said: “I had to kill her. I was not angry or anything. I was pretty emotionless, I just thought I had to kill her.”

Asked if he was angry towards her, he said no.

“I think I have mental problems — I didn’t feel angry, I just wanted to kill.”

He inflicted the fatal wound with a 40cm knife which he “hit” her in the “carotid artery”.

Stanford said he didn’t know why he kept Ms Scott’s bra. “Maybe as a souvenir,” he said.

“I had no reason to keep it.”

He has also told of watching her body burn in the Cocoparra National Park, 70km from Leeton, and visiting the scene afterwards to “make sure it was still there”.

Stanford was sitting in court with his head down. He is just a few metres away from Ms Scott’s family, who have filled the public gallery.

The hearing continues.