judge(Submitted by Martin MacMahon)

Yosef Gopaul has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing a hockey mom in 2013 , plus a robbery in a separate incident.

After receiving credit for time already served, Gopaul will spend 10.5 years behind bars.

Yosef Gopaul was arrested months after Julie Paskall died following a vicious beating outside the Newton Arena in December, 2013.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier today.

Court heard Gopaul has expressed remorse for the 53-year-old’s death. He told police saying he intended to knock her out — not kill her — when he hit her on the head with a rock the size of a grapefruit so he could rob the mother of three.

Paskall was attacked while waiting for her 16-year-old son who had been refereeing a hockey game.

Paskall’s husband, Al, has read a victim impact statement to the court, saying he is shattered by her death and would give anything for just five more minutes with her.

“Mom is no longer a phone call or bus ride away,” read Paskall’s daughter, Rhiannon to the court in her statement.

Stacey, another of Paskall’s daughters told the court she is devastated her mother won’t be there for life’s milestones, like getting married.

Gopaul stared down at his feet in the prisoner’s box, at one point asking the sheriff for a tissue.

Paskall’s friend Dorothy Stojkiewicz doesn’t feel the apology heard in court was sincere.

“He didn’t even look at the family when he read it and if you were going to make a statement like that, you would have faced that family and you would have said it to their face…not turn his head and not even look at them. I mean he devastated that family big time,” she says.

Stojkiewicz can’t believe she lost her best friend and says it still hurts.

“It’s hard, it’s really hard,” she explains. “Forty years of her being my best friend, very hard. I still grieve everyday, I cry everyday.”

Paskall’s death sparked several community meetings and calls for the police and council to clean up the area.