Duo’s ‘sorrow’ over killing
GREG Dufty was bashed to death and his body burned in such an intense fire, no trace of it was found.
Now, one man implicated in his death has walked from court with a suspended sentence and another can apply for parole straight away.
Liam Rawhiti Bliss, 27, and Clinton Earl Lee Stockman, 30, were sentenced in the Supreme Court in Brisbane yesterday after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Stockman also pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse.
Bliss has plans to return to work as a manager in a scaffolding company as soon as Monday, according to his solicitor Bruce Peters of Brisbane Criminal Lawyers.
The court was told Bliss and Stockman were part of a brutal July 2015 incident.
A drug-related financial dispute triggered an attack in which Mr Dufty was killed, then burned on a pyre near Casino, northern NSW.
Mr Dufty’s former partner Shani Mill said the Gold Coast man’s life was “cruelly and violently taken”.
“Can you imagine having to tell your children their father is dead and another human being is responsible?” she said in court.
“Because of you, Greg is gone” she told Bliss and Stockman.
Prosecutor Glen Cash said Mr Dufty was kicked, punched and assaulted with a big shifting spanner and truck tyre gauge.
The court heard Stockman witnessed some of the assault and urged others to stop, but was told to mind his own business.
Stockman’s barrister Doug Wilson said his client “doesn’t ask for forgiveness because he doesn’t believe he deserves it”.
“He’s asked me to express his sorrow,” Mr Wilson added.
He said the 30-year-old was from an illustrious sporting family in Hamilton, New Zealand, and had a good work history.
Bliss’s defence counsel Janice Crawford said he endured “extraordinarily harsh conditions” in isolation for 145 days before his transfer to prison in Maryborough.
“He was there under threat” and later received death threats when on bail, Ms Crawford said.
Mr Peters told the Bulletin Bliss was “quite relieved” the matter had been finalised.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong crew,” he said.
Mr Peters said Bliss did not know any of the men well and was “devastated” by the turn of events.
He said he accepted responsibility for driving the group but was not involved in assaulting Mr Dufty.
“It is something that he is going to have to live with for the rest of his life,” he said.
The court heard both men were remorseful and had no serious criminal history.
Neither man physically assaulted Mr Dufty, though both were part of a plan to attack him.
Justice David Boddice said the two would forever bear “a very heavy burden”.
Stockman was jailed for six years, but after 653 days in custody, can apply for parole at once.
Bliss was handed a fiveyear jail term, suspended immediately.
He had served 206 days in custody.
CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING TO TELL YOUR CHILDREN THEIR FATHER IS DEAD AND ANOTHER HUMAN BEING IS RESPONSIBLE?
SHANI MILL