When Bradley Lyons lay down on his bed for an afternoon nap after working the early Sunday shift at a Lakes Entrance supermarket in December 2018, he was blissfully unaware that several people were conspiring to kill him.
Key points:
- Albert Thorn, 57, from East Gippsland, has been found guilty of murdering Lakes Entrance man Bradley Lyons in December 2018
- Mr Lyons, 30, was beaten by a group of men and taken from his home before being shot in remote bushland
- A Supreme Court jury in Melbourne heard Mr Lyons was targeted by a vigilante group who believed he was a paedophile
WARNING: Readers may find some content in this article distressing
Leading the charge was eastern Victorian man, self-styled vigilante Albert Thorn, who suspected 30-year-old Mr Lyons was a paedophile.
After a three-week trial and five days of deliberations, a Supreme Court jury in Melbourne on Friday, found Thorn, 57, guilty of murdering Mr Lyons by shooting him in the back of the head while he lay bound, beaten and burnt in a shallow grave in remote bushland in eastern Victoria.
Thorn was also found guilty of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, intentionally causing injury and assault, with the jury hearing shocking evidence of how Mr Lyons — a father of three — was ambushed at his home on December 2, 2018, by a posse of four men intent on torturing a confession out of him.
In the kitchen, was Mr Lyon's wife and mother of his children Jana Hooper, who had picked him up from work only hours before.
She was in on the plot and gave Thorn and his accomplices a nod as they entered the McCullough Street house in Lakes Entrance, where the first stage of what became hours of torture took place.
A co-conspirator, Nick Stefani, who lived in a bungalow at the rear of Mr Lyons' and Hooper's house, was the person who had spread rumours in the community that Mr Lyons was sexually abusing children.
In an earlier proceeding for Stefani and Hooper, the court heard Stefani had also shared suspicions that a suspected overdose by Hooper the day before Mr Lyons' kidnapping, had been caused by Mr Lyons.
Stefani was among a group who started their own vigilante club to hunt paedophiles, the Australian Freedom Fighters Group.
Thorn committed himself to the cause by tattooing the group's name across his entire back and posted photographs to Facebook.
Making up the foursome who physically attacked Mr Lyons in his home were Alec Harvey and Rikki Smith.
On Friday, Smith, 26, and another co-accused, Jordan Bottom, 25, were found not guilty of murder. The pair was found guilty of assault and unlawful imprisonment, while Smith was also found guilty of intentionally causing injury.
Hooper, Stefani, Harvey, and Jayden Ball, who drove Smith and Harvey to Mr Lyons' home, are already in prison or have served sentences for their role in Mr Lyons' beating and his eventual death.
The latest trial was the second for Thorn, Bottom and Smith, after their first trial was abandoned last year because of juror misconduct.
Group conspired to 'get a confession'
The attack on Mr Lyons stemmed from Stefani's belief that his landlord was sexually abusing children.
No evidence was ever provided to corroborate his opinion, and prosecutors in court labelled them "flimsy claims".
On the afternoon Mr Lyons was attacked, the gang of four balaclava-clad men led by Thorn armed themselves with a metal pole and a sawn-off shotgun, and took turns beating him.
The court heard Stefani organised the attack with Thorn, and put out a cigarette in Mr Lyons' eye.
Thorn then backed his mother's Toyota Corolla up to the front door of the house, and Mr Lyons was bound, thrown into the boot and taken to Thorn's mother's property at Nyerimilang, in East Gippsland.
Shot in a shallow grave
Jordan Bottom, who was asleep in his caravan on the Thorns' property, was woken by Thorn banging on his door and telling him to look in the boot of his car where he "had a present" for him.
Bottom looked in the boot and saw a bloodied Mr Lyons.
He was left there for several hours before being taken to a small room inside a shed on the property.
It was there the men tied Mr Lyons to a massage table, and continued their torture of him through the early hours of December 3, by pouring hot water on him and bashing him.
In the prosecutor's opening statement, Raymond Gibson KC said Thorn had suggested they tattoo the words 'paedophile' or 'dog' on Mr Lyons' body, but instead decided to take him to another location.
Thorn, Bottom and Smith further bound Mr Lyons, put him in the boot again and drove to a remote bushland location near Double Bridges, where Bottom and Smith say Thorn dug a grave, shot Lyons and ordered Bottom and Smith to bury him.
Both Bottom and Smith maintained throughout the trial that Thorn first shot Mr Lyons in the leg and then in the back of the head, while he lay bound in the fetal position in the grave.
But prosecutors argued all three had been complicit in the murder, regardless of who ultimately fired the fatal shot.
"In this case we say that motive is very clear," Mr Gibson said.
"This was nothing short of vigilante action, people taking the law into their own hands and dishing out vigilante justice."
Thorn's legal team told the court Thorn had never travelled to the bushland where Mr Lyons was shot and buried.
However, Thorn had told his then eight-year-old daughter the day after the murder that he had beaten and killed a man who was "rude to children".
His daughter later gave police a detailed witness statement of what her father had told her.
Prosecutors told the court that Thorn warned his daughter she was "not to tell a single soul" they had killed the person in the boot.
Rap lyrics used as evidence
In all, seven people have been convicted over Mr Lyons' death.
Until now, the full details of Stefani's and Hooper's involvement have been suppressed but in the Melbourne Supreme Court, Justice Andrew Tinney said their actions culminated in Mr Lyons being "brutally murdered".
He described their behaviour as "pre-meditated thuggery in pursuit of private vengeance".
In an early interview with police, Bottom said he was the one who shot Mr Lyons, but then later changed his story.
After his arrest, Bottom's mother cleaned out the caravan he had been living in at the Thorns' property.
In his possessions, she found rap lyrics he had written.
The court heard the song was composed about a month after Mr Lyons' death. The lyrics were tendered in evidence.
"You wouldn't get to sleep if you've seen what I see, it's no bother to me I won't ever speak.
"Never speakin' a name I'll be keeping my spine, loyal to the game and the crew by my side.
"Executions on a Monday, Friday's our funday, your going to meet ya maker by the time that it's Sunday."
In his closing statements, Bottom's barrister, David Cronin, addressed the jury with lyrics from Eminem's Lose Yourself.
He did so to make the point that rappers often wrote lyrics which were metaphorical and ambiguous, and said that Bottom's lyrics did not mean he had killed Mr Lyons.
The police found Mr Lyon's body after Bottom led them to the bush grave about three months after his death.
It was there that forensic investigators found him, still bound in the fetal position.
Before Hooper and Stefani were to go to trial in 2022, Hooper pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, kidnapping and false imprisonment, while Stefani pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, kidnapping, false imprisonment and common law assault.
In December last year, Hooper was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years' jail with a non-parole period of four and a half years, while Stefani was sentenced to 10 years with a non-parole period of eight years.
Harvey, who disposed of the gun for Thorn, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years' jail, with a non-parole period of five and a half years.
Ball was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 months for driving the offenders to Mr Lyons' home.
Thorn, Bottom and Smith have been remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.