A man who was found guilty of the sexual assault and death of Lynette Daley on a remote NSW beach has been jailed for at least 14 years and three months while his friend, who joined in on the sex act, will spend at least six years and nine months behind bars.
Ms Daley, 33, died from injuries sustained in the violent sex act with her boyfriend Adrian Attwater, 43, and his friend, Paul Maris, 47, on a drunken 2011 Australia Day camping trip to Ten Mile Beach near Iluka.
A jury in September found Attwater guilty of manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault and Maris guilty of aggravated sexual assault and hindering the discovery of evidence.
At the NSW Supreme Court in Coffs Harbour on Friday, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton sentenced Attwater to 19 years in jail with a non-parole period of 14 years and three months.
Maris was sentenced to nine years' jail with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.
An autopsy report revealed that Lynette died from blunt force genital trauma..
The coroner in 2014 also expressed his “contempt and disgust for the callous disregard for her welfare” by the two men and referred the case to the DPP.
However, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute on two separate occasions, once in 2012 and again in 2016 - a decision that shocked Lynette’s family and has drawn criticism from many quarters.
Professor Marcia Langton has told 'The Point’ last year that there was “no rational reason for not prosecuting”, and the decision showed “a general tolerance for violence against Indigenous women”.
A review of the case by the DPP was already underway after the NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the decision in February this year.
With AAP
