‘CRAVEN’ KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE
Victim’s body found in house fire
A COLD-BLOODED killer, a coward and a craven.
These were the words used to describe Jason William Binney (pictured) in the Supreme Court yesterday.
Binney will spend the remainder of his life behind bars after he was sentenced over the 2016 murder of Mark Wilkes in Dalby.
The court heard Binney said he would “do away” with Mr Wilkes “and I’ll make it look like an accident”.
JUST shy of 1000 days since Dalby father-of-three Mark Wilkes was killed in his sleep, a man is behind bars for at least the next 20 years for his murder.
Jason William Binney pleaded guilty to murder in the Supreme Court yesterday, where it was heard the tragedy came as a result of a love-triangle turned deadly in the small town.
Binney and the victim’s estranged wife Letisha Finn started a relationship in the wake of her split from the deceased in 2015.
The court heard that during this romance, Binney had asked a man numerous times to “tickle up” his partner’s ex while he was away in Hervey Bay and had an alibi.
It also heard that a witness claimed the accused told Ms Finn, “I’ll do away with him and I’ll make it look like an accident.”
In the wake of the killing, Binney offered sympathies to the victim’s family and asked that Facebook messages declaring his shock at the blaze be screenshot.
Justice Martin Burns said Mr Wilkes died from being struck in the head numerous times with a hammer prior to a fire that engulfed his Dalby home on January 20, 2016.
Justice Burns, however, stopped short of blaming Binney for the deadly blow, finding that he instead aided another individual to carry out the attack on his behalf.
Binney’s barrister David Jones submitted that his client was pleading guilty under the condition that he would provide a statement within two weeks to police to identify an alleged culprit.
Mr Jones also submitted that police further look into the involvement of Ms Finn.
“There is another person who should also be in the dock, and that is Ms Finn,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Mark Green said Binney, while on remand, confessed to an undercover operative that a Vietnam veteran, who the accused has never identified, agreed to kill the victim as a favour for his late father.
Mr Wilkes’ sister Myra read a victim impact statement in the court, called Binney a “cold blooded killer” and detailed her family’s grief since her brother’s death.
“It still haunts me to think how this escalated into a never-ending nightmare for our family,” she said.
Binney was sentenced to life behind bars by Justice Burns, who described him as a “coward and a craven”.
Binney is eligible for parole after serving 20 years.