Parents travel to WA for inquest into daughter's murder
THE parents of murdered Melbourne sisters Colleen and Laura Irwin have travelled to Western Australia to attend an inquest for their daughters' murderer. ...

THE parents of murdered Melbourne sisters Colleen and Laura Irwin have travelled to Western Australia to attend an inquest for their daughters' murderer.

Allan and Shirley Irwin will sit through an inquest into rapist William John Watkins.

The inquest was due to start today and was expected to run for three days in Karratha, about 1500km north of Perth, and three days in the capital city.

Acting Sgt Shane Gray shot and killed Watkins, 38, on January 31 last year.

Sgt Gray had no idea the man he was trying to arrest for a petrol drive-off near Karratha was the prime suspect for the murder of the Irwin sisters three days earlier in Melbourne.

Sgt Gray shot Watkins after the criminal fractured his skull on a remote highway.

Sgt Gray was awarded a bravery medal.

Speaking from Karratha yesterday, Mr Irwin said he and his wife were there to support Sgt Gray.

"(The death of Watkins) was the only one decent thing that happened out of this whole horrible scenario," Mr Irwin said.

"He (Sgt Gray) has done us the biggest favour. You can't help but admire the man."

Watkins raped and murdered Colleen and Laura Irwin in their Altona North home on January 28, 2006.

A Melbourne inquest was told in June this year that Watkins, the sisters' next door neighbour, attacked Colleen when she arrived home from a birthday party just after midnight.