Brenda Lin, the sole survivor of the Lin family massacre, has revealed a heartbreaking secret she still has trouble talking about behind the disturbing motive in her family’s murder in 2009.

Speaking with Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program, Ms Lin opened up in her first interview since her uncle Robert Xie was found guilty of the murder of her five family members, revealing what it was like living with their killer, and her biggest regret.

Robert Xie was sentenced to five life sentences for the murders of the Lin family. Photo: Seven Network

But seven years later, Ms Lin still struggles to talk about the horrific sequence of events, confirming Xie sexually assaulted her prior to, and after, the murders.

“Is there anything else you want to tell me about him? Things he may have done? Did your uncle Robert Xie sexually abuse you,” host Melissa Doyle asked Ms Lin.

“Yes, he did,” was her response, saying she was uncomfortable talking about it and requested privacy.

However, during the trial of her family’s murderer, Ms Lin told the court Xie sexually assaulted her regularly until he was charged with the massacre in 2011, Fairfax Media reported.

It was determined by prosecutors that Xie’s sexual interest in Ms Lin was a motive behind the murders.

Ms Lin was 15 when her father Min “Norman” Lin, her mother Yun Li “Lily” Lin, her aunt Yun Bin “Irene” Lin, and her two little brothers Henry and Terry were killed.

Referred to as Ms AB during the court case, Ms Lin was placed into the custody of her uncle Xie and aunt Kathy Lin, after Xie offered to adopt her only hours after the murders.

Justice Elizabeth Fullerton accepted Ms Lin’s evidence before sentencing Xie to five life sentences.

“The risk that this offender may commit offences of violence in the future, and the community’s legitimate expectation that it is protected from that risk, is amplified by the sexual violence the offender inflicted on Ms AB after the murders, as the surviving member of her family,” she said at Xie’s sentencing hearing.

Brenda’s biggest regret

Ms Lin spoke of the final moments she spent with her family, breaking down as she admitted that her biggest regret to this day was not telling her father she loved him.

She was set to fly on a school excursion to New Caledonia and was at the departure gates with her parents, watching her classmates kiss their families goodbye.

Ms Lin said she regretted not hugging and telling her father she loved him. Photo: Seven Network

“A lot of them were in tears, saying they would miss them a lot and I was trying to be cool, and as a teenager, and I was thinking, ‘you know, you guys are just being absolutely ridiculous’,” she recalled.

“My dad stood next to me and I sort of stood there awkwardly. I sort of looked at him and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything to him.

“I just sort of watched everyone else being emotional and I thought it was ridiculous, and then we all left. And that’s the last time I saw him.

“I didn’t get to say thank you for being an amazing father … I didn’t get to tell him I loved him.

“I just wish I’d told him that he’s an amazing person and thank you for doing, doing everything for us.

“And I never told him that I was grateful. Never told him I loved him and I’ll never be able to either.”