 Passing sentence , Rafferty said : " You robbed three innocent ladies of their lives . I suspect that their families will suffer the more as they simply don 't understand why you did . The brutality of these ladies ' deaths , designed by you to evade discovery , showing the coldness with which you dispatched them , is appalling . You should clearly have faced up like a man at the overwhelming nature of the Crown 's case against you but you chose to put the victims ' families through misery which you compounded by this trial . " The motive for Smith 's actions remained unclear after the trial , but police believed a " lack of permanent sexual relations " had been a contributing factor . 
