Ally Langdon breaks down during emotional interview with family of slain paramedic Steven Tougher

Ally Langdon has choked back tears as she spoke to the grieving family of a paramedic stabbed to death by a stranger in a McDonald’s parking lot.

The A Current Affair host interviewed Steven Tougher’s heartbroken mother, father, sister and wife after a grueling day in court on Monday.

Mr Tougher was stabbed 55 times during a break during a service in Campbelltown, south-west Sydney, in the early hours of April 14, 2023.

Jordan James Fineanganofo, 23, admitted stabbing the 29-year-old to death but pleaded not guilty to murder due to mental health concerns at the start of what was expected to be a six-week trial in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.

During an interview with A Current Affair after the court appearance, Mr Tougher’s father Jeff described his son as an incredibly compassionate man.

“The saddest part of all this is that if he (Fineanganofo) had asked my son for help, he would have been showered with compassion because that is what my son does,” Jeff said.

“He would have gotten the medical care he had, and they would have taken him straight to the hospital.

“He paid the ultimate price, and so do we.”

Langdon burst into tears as she struggled to ask Jeff more about Mr. Tougher.

“I’m sorry, when you talk about that and you know, here is your son, a man full of compassion, that’s why he became a paramedic,” she told the family.

“For us to sit here and talk about this and what happened.

‘I’m just sorry.

“You need to give each other a hug, I wish I was there to give you one.”

Mr Tougher’s sister, mother and wife – Maddison, who gave birth to their daughter Lily May Stevie just five weeks after the stabbing – immediately broke down and told Langdon: “Thank you.”

Jeff replied, “Thanks buddy. You have to understand how loved he was in the community.

‘I’m talking about dropping pebbles into a pond and then you have the ripple effect; You don’t know who the ripples will touch, Ally, and how many lives my boy has helped.

“Affected people came up to me on the street and said, ‘Your young guy helped me in the hospital. He came back after he finished work. I was panicking about major surgery and he held my hand as we went into the operating room.”

“This is the boy we’re talking about.”

Mr Tougher’s widow, Maddison, told Langdon she felt ‘deprived of justice’ after her hearing Prosecutors had agreed to a mental health sentence if Fineanganofo signed a statement of facts acknowledging the physical elements of the crime, which were captured on CCTV.

“I feel deprived for my little girl, I’m just heartbroken,” she said.

Jeff described Monday’s hearing as ‘harrowing’ and ‘very difficult’.

‘“We only found out last Tuesday that this was the way things were going to move forward,” he said.

‘Before we thought the trial would last six weeks and be a murder case.

‘We haven’t really had time to deal with that yet.

“Just another day where they ripped the band-aid off, you know, and then you got sore all over again.

‘We are damaged, but not broken. It looks like we’re the ones getting a life sentence without Steven. That’s hard to look forward to, but we’re not broken in any way.”

Judge David Davies adjourned court until Friday to consider whether the mental health defense had held up.

The family remains hopeful that Fineanganofo will face a murder trial.

“Realistically, we haven’t been deprived of justice yet,” Jeff said.

He also pledged that his granddaughter will grow up knowing what a hero her father was and that the family will step up efforts to improve safety for frontline workers.

‘All those Frontline workers out there, just know that what I’m about to start, I’m doing for you and for Steven Tougher and for the community to feel safe again,” Jeff added.

“If we can change the laws or introduce laws called Steven’s Law, then my son will be immortal.

‘My son will be with us forever. And anything less would be a shame.’

Earlier on Monday, Mr Tougher’s family erupted as the court heard harrowing details that Fineanganofo did not say a word as he approached and began stabbing Mr Tougher in a chilling attack that lasted almost four minutes.

Fineanganofo hung his head and covered his face as details of the murder were read to the court.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said Tougher was unable to escape as he was trapped between the back of the ambulance and his attacker.

Mr Tougher tried to push Fineanganofo away, but was unsuccessful. He said, ‘What are you doing? Stop stabbing me, buddy.”

Despite the efforts of several people to help, Fineanganofo continued to stab Mr Tougher, walking away several times before returning to inflict more wounds as the NSW ambulance worker lay on the ground, the court heard.

At one point Fineanganofo told Mr Tougher: “Say you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry mate, whatever you think I did,” a badly injured but still conscious Mr Tougher replied.

Bystander James Arthur ran over in an attempt to help, kicked Fineanganofo and shouted at him to stop.

“You’re going to kill him,” Mr Arthur said, the court was told.

In response to calls from another bystander, Fineanganofo allegedly said: “I’m going to jail anyway, I might as well kill him” or “I have to kill him because I have to go to prison.”

Fineanganofo has also pleaded not guilty on mental health grounds to a series of charges over alleged incidents in nearby suburbs in the days leading up to Mr Tougher’s murder.

These incidents included intimidating a woman pushing a stroller carrying a five-month-old child, threatening several men at a gas station and brandishing a knife at a man during a roadside incident, puncturing his jacket but not his skin.

Fineanganofo’s lawyer AJ Karim said the defense’s position was largely identical to that of the prosecution, including that the physical acts of the offenses had been committed.

The prosecution and defense brought in psychiatrists who agreed that Fineanganofo could claim he knew what he was doing but didn’t know it was wrong.

Forensic psychiatrist Kerri Eagle, retained by the prosecutor, determined that Fineanganofo had a mental health disorder at the time of the offense and exhibited signs and symptoms of a psychotic illness consistent with a relapse of schizophrenia.

Dr. Eagle noted witness statements describing Fineanganofo as “he was in a trance, calm, mumbling, grinning and strange,” the court was told.

Mr McKay said Fineanganofo had previously been charged after attacking a neighbor in 2021, but rather than face charges he involuntarily entered treatment for mental health problems.

According to hospital records, at the time, Fineanganofo had been isolated in his family home for a year with minimal interaction with others, causing him to become increasingly paranoid about people, including his family.