BRIAN McKeough has seen a lot in 27 years as Nowra’s chamber magistrate and coroner – in fact far more than most people would ever want to see.

“I’ve seen some pretty terrible things in my time,” he said matter-of-factly.

He has visited the scenes and looked into the circumstances surrounding an array of murders, murder-suicides, accidental deaths and road fatalities, but said that was not the worst of his role.

“The worst thing I’ve had to deal with is cot death,” Mr McKeough said in a simple statement that summed up the very human and compassionate approach he took to his work.

After retiring from the job last week, Mr McKeough said the deaths of children were the hardest to deal with.

There was the case of a young child bashed to death in Nowra by his mother and her defacto, which Mr McKeough said was “more sad than bad, that society had dropped its guard so much that this could happen to a child”.

He felt it was ironic the way the authorities were calling on Australians to be more vigilant in guarding against terrorism, yet so much of society was turning a blind eye to abuse and violence happening right under our noses.

Being in the Shoalhaven so long, staying here at the insistence of wife Kathy after spending short periods at nine other courthouses in the previous 14 years, Mr McKeough said he often knew people involved in the cases he examined.

And he felt that helped him offer a better service “because you can understand the pain of these people, and you’re more ready to make things easier for them.

“If you know someone in our society, you’re more compassionate.”

And knowing so many people in the local area, it was not long before that compassion was extended to all people.

While he was always compassionate to people experiencing grief, it was not until he lost his own son David, who took his own life, that Mr McKeough realised the depth of despair brought by such a loss.

“I didn’t realise how much pain people suffered until I lost my own son, then my father and my in-laws,” he admitted.

While there are some instances that stick with Mr McKeough, such as the five young people killed in a car accident at Gerroa or the six killed in a crash at Kangaroo Valley, Mr McKeough preferred to remember happier occasions such as the 1452 couples he had married in Nowra.

Of the marriages he performed the shortest lasted just as long as the reception, when the bride ran off with the photographer.

And the funniest was his first, which was almost cancelled because the groom had a carbuncle on his backside.

After Mr McKeough assured the bride the wedding could proceed with the groom wearing whatever was comfortable, the wedding proceeded with the groom wearing a dress shirt, jacket, bow tie and shorts.

Curious why people were giggling during the ceremony, Mr McKeough found out later the groom had a large hole cut in the back of his shorts, with bandages placed over his wound.