Warning: This story contains details that may be disturbing to some readers.

Friends and family of Jessica Lloyd gathered in court Wednesday to confront Col. Russell Williams, the high-ranking military commander convicted of her murder.

They came forward to deliver victim impact statements in a Belleville courtroom, often standing to face Williams, separated from him by a line of police.

Two people even demanded that Williams look up from the floor to meet them eye to eye as they read out their statements, which led to gasps in the court when Williams obliged.

Jessica Lloyd's mother, Roxanne, told the court that "Because of him I can never hold my daughter Jessica in my arms again, hug her and tell her that I love her."

"I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest."

Jessica Lloyd was 27 when she disappeared on Jan. 28, 2010. Williams was arrested shortly afterwards and her body was discovered off a rural road near Tweed, Ont.

A woman named Lisa, who said she was Jessica Lloyd's best friend, told the convicted sex murderer that his crimes led her to question her religious faith, and her support for the military.

"The only beauty I see in you is you are caught and will never hurt another woman again," she said.

Jessica Lloyd's aunt Janice Pitt cried as she told Williams that his monstrous act would mean her family will "never be truly happy again."

"We all miss Jess terribly," Pitt said. "Fortunately another family will never have to be terrorized like ours by Russell Williams."

After pleading guilty to a host of charges, including first-degree murder in the deaths of Lloyd and 38-year-old Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, the sexual assault of two other victims and 82 fetish break-ins, Williams was formally convicted on Tuesday. The victim impact statements were being read in court as part of his sentencing hearing.

"I hope he rots," said Jessica Lloyd's friend Kirsten.

In a taped interview with police, Williams explained that he hid Lloyd's body in his garage. He was commander of the CFB Trenton airbase at the time of the murders, and went to work because he was flying a military plane to California early the next day.

He later returned to dispose of her body.

Debra Lloyd, another aunt, said what most disturbed her was that Williams dumped her niece's body "like a bag of trash."

"We all planned on seeing Jessica get married and have beautiful babies," Debra Lloyd said. "He has robbed us of all that."

Williams looked up at Jessica Lloyd's brother, Andy, as he described the disgraced airbase commander as "evil, pure evil."

Andy Lloyd also said that his father, who succumbed to cancer in the 1990s after retiring from the Navy, would have been "mortified" to learn that a military commander had murdered his daughter.

After the sentencing hearing adjourned for the day, Andy Lloyd told reporters outside the courthouse that he felt relieved after confronting Williams.

"It was good to get that off everybody's chest," he said. "Once tomorrow's over and this circus dies down, it's going to be a really good thing. Everybody wants to get this over with and get back to normal life."

Williams is to be sentenced on Thursday.

With files from The Canadian Press and files from CTV's John Vennavally-Rao