Family's relief at Naden's guilty plea 

Precisely one year after the ragged fugitive was hauled from bush near Gloucester after an incredible 2466 nights on the run, he pleaded guilty in a firm, deliberate voice, to all 18 charges against him in the NSW Supreme Court.

Having initially indicated that mental illness had rendered him unfit to stand trial for the 2005 murders of his cousin Lateesha Nolan and Kristy Scholes, the attempted murder of a policeman, the indecent assault of a minor and a string of break and enter offences, Naden abandoned the argument and pleaded guilty to the lot.

One of Ms Scholes’ relatives – about  a dozen of whom sat in the court –  cried quietly as Naden declared he was responsible for her death.

‘‘It’s been a long eight years and I haven’t had much sleep, but I reckon I might sleep for the next eight,’’ Ms Nolan’s father, Mick Peet, said after Naden had been taken back down to the cells.

‘‘Nothing’s going to bring my daughter back but at least now we don’t have to go through the ordeal of a court case.’’

As the associate to Justice David Price read out the string of break and enter charges against Naden, it underlined his remarkable seven years on the run, traversing bush from Lightning Ridge to Barrington Tops.

Having fled Dubbo after Ms Scholes’s body was found in his family home in 2005, Naden was seen in Dubbo’s Western Plains Zoo, sending the park into lockdown.

There were a string of Naden sightings over the ensuing years as the fugitive stole supplies – including 60 bottles of beer, five kilograms of raw cashews, and talcum powder – from isolated properties.

As close encounters with Naden continued in 2011,  the reward climbed to $100,000  then $250,000. Three months before his capture Naden shot a 33-year-old police officer in the shoulder near a remote camp site near Nowendoc.

With the 38-year-old’s sentencing hearing due to start on April 24 attention has turned to the appropriate punishment for such a brutal litany of crimes.

‘‘If it was up to me it’d be a life for a life, but we don’t have capital punishment so I think he should get a life sentence,’’ said Mr Peet, whose family are hoping that Lateesha’s remains will be found.  ‘‘We took our kids to a theme park yesterday and I kept seeing Lateesha everywhere, remembering how we used to take her there. It’s still hard to believe she’s actually gone.’’

Speaking outside court, Ms Scholes’ uncle, Tony Scholes, said the family was happy at Naden’s guilty pleas.

‘‘We’re all emotional,’’ he said, adding the past eight years had been ‘‘terrible’’ .

‘‘Sitting around, waiting for this man to be captured, it’s been a big ordeal for all of the family.’’