One of Shaun Barker's killers used Facebook to advertise body parts for sale, using a human skull as part of a profile picture, the victim's sister has told a court.
Sheridan Mollenhauer was on her honeymoon when she found out her brother's charred bones had been found in a Queensland forest.
But what followed was the nightmare of discovering he had been tortured, burnt and his bones scattered in a forest and then the macabre details killer Stephen John Armitage posted on Facebook.
"You went on to put in a very large post on your page advertising that you had body parts for sale," she told the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday.
"Then you went and put a profile picture of yourself laying on a bed with your hands tied to the bed and a human skull in front of you."
Armitage, 48, his son Matthew Leslie Armitage, 25, and William Francis Dean were sentenced to life in jail on Wednesday for Mr Barker's murder, and also received sentences for torture and interfering with a corpse.
Ms Mollenhauer said it made her sick to think three grown men could "brutally kill" someone and not have any remorse.
"You decided to kill Shaun over days," she said.
"You all had the time to let him go, but you decided his life wasn't worth living and you made damn sure he suffered every remaining minute of his life."
Dean, 41, was found guilty of Mr Barker's murder, torture and interfering with his corpse in March 2017.
The Armitages were also convicted of torture and interfering with his corpse, but it took a retrial in September for the pair to also be found guilty of killing him.
The court heard Mr Barker was assaulted by Dean and others on the Gold Coast on December 10, 2013, before Dean drove him to the Armitage property near Gympie.
He was tortured over multiple days before his body was likely burnt in a fire pit and remaining bones scattered in a nearby forest.
Justice David Jackson said, in sentencing on Wednesday, questions about the exact injuries and what ultimately killed Mr Barker could not be answered because there were no witnesses.
But throughout the two trials, the court heard evidence he had been kept in one of Stephen Armitage's fishing coolers, denied food and water and tied to a tree.
There were also reports he had been dropped from a forklift while in the cooler, suffered broken bones and a smashed face, and had his genitals covered in honey to attract ants.
Justice Jackson said while it was difficult to know how reliable some of the evidence was, he said the trio's conduct was "sadistic and cruel".
"Shaun Barker was being tortured to provide some kind of information, probably about drugs, that the defendants ... thought he had taken," he said.
The trio will be eligible for parole after they have served 20 years.
Ms Mollenhauer said outside court she was relieved.
"The only gift I've got left is justice, it's been a hard four years," she said.
Australian Associated Press
