’Complete lack of concern for human life’

A LIFE sentence with no parole is a fitting sentence for a man who carried out a “callous and premeditated” plan to brutally murder his father for financial gain, a court has heard.

Michael Phillip Martin, 28, who was found guilty in October of the June 2014 murder of his father in a bid to cash in on $2.5 million in life insurance policies, is being sentenced in the Supreme Court in Lismore this week.

Martin planned and executed two violent attacks on his 46-year-old father, Michael Anthony Martin, in his South Murwillumbah unit in April and June 2014.

The first attack on April 7 left his father in hospital in a critical condition and his flatmate Edmund Manning with serious injuries.

Two months later – the first night Martin snr returned to the Quarry Rd unit after an extended stay in hospital – Martin jnr savagely hacked and stabbed him to death with a samurai sword.

During sentencing submissions heard yesterday, Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell said Martin’s “complete lack of concern for human life” deserved the highest possible sentence.

Martin had also shown no remorse, insight, or responsibility for his offending, and was an “accomplished liar” who lied “continually to the police for a long, long time about many issues”.

But Martin’s barrister Gabriel Wendler said Martin’s father, an alcoholic, had exposed his client to “shameful neglect and cruelty” in his formative years which must be taken into account. Martin suffered from major depression and was taking anti-depressants for several years prior to the murder.

“His release from that trauma was unfortunately a lethal attack on his father,” Mr Wendler said.

Justice Hamill is expected to hand down his sentence tomorrow.