The parents of a three-month-old boy killed in the Bourke Street tragedy have described their agony at having to leave their young daughter’s bedside in hospital to attend their baby son’s funeral.

Zachary Matthew-Bryant was asleep next to his two-year-old sister, Zara, when their pram was hit by a car speeding up the footpath in January, 2017.

Their pram became lodged in the windscreen of the car, which was driven by James Gargasoulas, 29, who was in a drug-induced psychosis.

Their parents, Matthew Bryant and Nawwar Hassan-Bryant, have described to a court their haunting memories of turning off their baby’s life support.

“I listened to his heartbeat and held him for the last time trying desperately to hold onto the moment,” Mr Bryant told Gargasoulas’s plea hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court.

“He never had the opportunity to have a birthday party.

“He had a lifetime of firsts taken from him and all the joys that come with it.”

Zara Matthew-Bryant suffered serious injuries and was hospitalised for a week.

Ms Hassan-Bryant said one of the toughest things was leaving her in hospital to attend their son’s funeral.

She remembered him as a “gentle and calm soul” who was quick to smile and easy to please.

Mr Bryant said his daughter remained confused and distressed by what had happened.

“How do you explain to a toddler that that incident was not an accident but intentional?” he asked.

Matthew Si’s wife, Melinda Tan, had to identify him from his hands and legs. Photo: ABC

‘This image has not left me’

Matthew Si, 33, had just had lunch with his wife, Melinda Tan, when he was struck and killed.

Ms Tan told the court she remembered hearing sirens shortly after leaving her husband on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth streets.

After waiting at a hospital for five hours not knowing what had happened to him, she was taken to a room to identify a man who had died on the operating table.

Mr Si’s head and face were so badly injured, she had to identify him by his hands and legs, the court heard.

“This image has not left me since,” Ms Tan said.

If I could, I would trade places with him … it is much harder to be the one who survived.”

Ms Tan said the couple’s young daughter still asked for her father and wonders why he never came home.

“She does not comprehend why a car would drive on the footpath,” she said. “There are no words to rationalise this.”

Ms Tan said she and her husband were robbed of the chance to grow old together.

“Your words of sorry mean nothing to me, I wear the label of widow and you are murderer,” she said.

“You are a coward that sat in the safety of the car while you killed and injured innocent lives.

“May you suffer the consequences of your actions and live in eternal fear.”

The car driven by James Gargasoulas in the attack that killed six people. Photo: AAP

Victim remembers ‘every sickening second’

Witnesses and others injured in the tragedy also addressed the court about the terrible toll it had taken on their lives, the constant struggle to get back to the person they were before and their guilt for surviving.

Melinda Clelland was meeting friends for lunch when she was hit by the car and badly injured.

“In the brief moments that I saw a car drive from the Bourke Street Mall …  and towards me, I made a split-second … decision about what I would do to try and save my life,” Ms Clelland told the court.

She said she can still “vividly recall every sickening second of it” – the moment she thought she would die, the feeling of her body hitting a handrail as she fell back to the ground and the sound of “bones crunching” as she hit a concrete wall.

Prosecutors are calling for Gargasoulas to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

He was found guilty by a jury last year of six counts of murder and 27 counts of reckless conduct endangering life.

The plea hearing continues.

-ABC