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Two men who assaulted Bradley Lyons, a young Victorian dad accused of being a pedophile, before he was murdered by another man have argued they should be allowed to walk free from prison.
Jordan Bottom, 25, and Rikki Smith, 26, appeared in court in front of Mr Lyons’ 19-year-old stepdaughter, who read statements on behalf of herself and her three younger siblings reliving the “horrific loss” of their father.
Mr Lyons, 30, had returned home after finishing a shift at a Lakes Entrance supermarket on Victoria’s east coast when he was ambushed by four men suspecting he was a pedophile.
The details of Mr Lyons’ kidnapping, torture and eventual murder were rehashed in front of distraught family members at a plea hearing in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Thursday.
In June, Albert Thorn was found guilty of the torture, imprisonment and murder of Mr Lyons.
Bottom and Smith were acquitted for his murder but found guilty of assault and false imprisonment.
On Thursday, Bottom’s lawyer David Cronin argued his client should now be able to walk free from prison after spending four-and-a-half years behind bars while awaiting trial.
Before the trial Bottom had offered to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter which prosecutors rejected.
Mr Cronin said on Thursday the early guilty plea demonstrated Bottom had “accepted responsibility and (shown) remorse”, earning him a “significant discount”.
During the trial a jury heard that in December 2018 four men, including Thorn and Smith, stormed Mr Lyons’ Lakes Entrance home after hearing rumours he had abused children.
The 30-year-old father of three was beaten and stuffed into the boot of a car before being driven to Thorn’s property in Nyerimilang.
Upon arrival, Thorn told Bottom, who had been living in a caravan on the property, that he had a “present” for him in the boot of the car.
Police allege the trio, in the presence of two co-conspirators, then discussed how to extract a confession from Mr Lyons.
Mr Lyons was strapped to a massage table and tortured, suffering physical assaults and having boiling water poured over him.
He was then driven to an unnamed bush track near Double Bridges in East Gippsland, where he was shot in the back of the head and left in a shallow grave.
Bottom later assisted police in locating Mr Lyons’ body in remote bushland, which his lawyer said had been the “right thing to do”.
Justice Andrew Tinney, however, said Bottom’s immediate release on parole was “unrealistic” and that his conduct “contained elements far beyond false imprisonment”.
Smith’s lawyer John Saunders also argued for his client to be made eligible for parole immediately and that while in prison he had “taken a number of significant steps … to rehabilitate himself”.
Mr Saunders said during the trial Smith pleaded guilty in front of a jury to intentionally causing injury to Mr Lyons and had made admissions to police regarding his participation in the assault.
Emotional statements were read on behalf of Mr Lyons’ mother, who was not present, and in person by his stepdaughter who also spoke on behalf of his three children now aged 9-13.
She spoke of how the men “took justice into their own hands” and “robbed” her of her childhood.
“(I have been) left broken, damaged and alone,” she said, speaking of the bullying and aggression her and her siblings have faced since the murder.
“Bradley was not the only victim here.”
Jana Hooper, Mr Lyons’ wife and mother to their three young children, is currently behind bars after being convictted last year for the kidnapping and assault of Mr Lyons.
The hearing is ongoing.
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