A NSW prisoner will soon be eligible for release after he helped kidnap a pensioner so he could continue to enjoy a free place to stay, before the victim was killed and left to rot in in a surfboard bag.
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Paul William Turner, 51, previously admitted detaining Mark Dower for advantage at the Wollongong unit of Mark Kenneth Jenkin, who would go on to kill the 56-year-old pensioner.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Peter Hamill jailed Turner for four-and-a-half years with a non-parole period of two years and three months over the 2015 kidnapping.
"I have a strong feeling that the seriousness of the events that unfolded, including the death of Mr Dower ... is likely to result in Mr Turner turning his life around," the judge said.
His sentence was backdated to November 2016 to account for time already spent in custody, meaning he'll be eligible for release in February.
"See you in a couple of months," Turner said to two supporters as he was led from the dock.
Mr Dower's badly decomposing body was found in April 2015 after it was left bagged in the external laundry of a Wollongong housing estate.
Jenkin, who took money from Mr Dower and violently assaulted him, has separately been found guilty of manslaughter by Justice Hamill and is awaiting sentence.
The judge on Thursday said the two men took Mr Dower to Jenkin's unit on March 22, 2015, where he was detained in "distressing and demeaning" circumstances.
The victim was "a homeless man with alcohol problems" who was weak, harmless and "easy prey to those who sought to take advantage of him", he said.
Turner, who was also homeless and was being sought by police for breaching parole, was motivated by the free accommodation he had at Jenkin's place.
He saw Jenkin strike Mr Dower and "graphic and disturbing" phone video showed the victim, who was naked and covered in faeces, being berated by Jenkin while Turner held him upright.
Turner left for his mother's house the following day, and Justice Hamill wasn't satisfied he knew he was leaving Mr Dower in peril or that he had any real insight into his fate.
The judge said he had to ignore "the most salient fact" - that Mr Dower later died while still detained by Jenkin - in sentencing Turner.
"This crucial detail is not referred to in the agreed facts and it would be contrary to law to take it into account," he said.
He said that while Turner was a "drug addict, a burglar and a thief", the evidence showed he wasn't a violent person and he accepted the aggravated kidnapping was out of character.
Australian Associated Press
