Killer’s final plea ahead of sentencing

MURDERER Mark Rodney Jones had a “chequered start to life” but had “rehabilitated himself” by the time he tortured and killed a man over a missing ute, his lawyer has told a court.

Jones waterboarded Bradley Breward, twice suffocated him with a plastic bag and later weighed down the deceased 22-year-old’s body and dumped it in a lake near Devonport on New Year’s Day 2017.

A jury last week unanimously found Jones, 43, of West Launceston, guilty of murder.

During sentencing submissions yesterday, Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC told the Supreme Court in Launceston that it was “common sense” that Jones’ actions would cause Mr Breward to die.

Mr Coates said Jones had been warned by both Ricky John Izard, 28, who went with him to the Newnham unit, and the victim himself, that Mr Breward was dying.

In arguing Jones’ violence was premeditated, Mr Coates also referred to text messages Jones had sent friends in the weeks leading up to the murder, in which he said he was going to waterboard Mr Breward and kill him “many times over”.

Jones had spent three weeks obsessed with finding his stolen Nissan Patrol and Mr Breward, whom he believed had stolen it.

“Although all murders are a serious offence, it is my submission this is a serious example,” Mr Coates said.

Jones was convicted of four counts of rape in 1998 and was sentenced to five years’ jail after the Crown successfully appealed an initial four-year sentence.

Jones’ lawyer Greg Richardson said his client “grew up in a family environment characterised by extreme violence” and had been sexually abused by a cricket umpire when he was eight to nineyears old.

But Mr Richardson said Jones, a self-employed builder and father-of-two, had rehabilitated himself.

While Mr Coates said there was “no evidence of immediate remorse”, Mr Richardson said Jones had expressed it in an interview with detectives on the day of his arrest.

Justice Pearce remanded Jones to reappear for sentencing on Friday, when Izard, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, aggravated burglary and perverting the course of justice, is also due to be sentenced.