A mother has shared her heartbreak during the sentencing of a man involved in the death of her 21-year-old son 16 years ago in North Queensland.
Jay Brogden was last seen in Airlie Beach during 2007.
His body was never found.
Braddon Charles Peter Butler was charged with Jay Brogden's murder in 2019 but, several days before his trial was set to begin this week, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Mr Brogden's family, including his mother Gina Merritt, crowded the pews of the Supreme Court in Mackay on Monday to hear Butler's sentence.
"There is no place to bury Jay, no place to mourn our loss, just memories, memories that have been overshadowed by his disappearance," Ms Merritt told the court.
To 'scare him straight'
Last year, one of Mr Brogden's former friends, Gavin Parnell, was convicted of his murder — shooting him dead in a boat off the coast of Airlie Beach.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told the court Butler was a drug dealer in the Whitsundays in 2007 and had supplied to Mr Brogden when an issue arose about money.
The court heard Mr Brogden had been an avid angler and Butler and Parnell had "lured him" onto the water under the guise of fishing.
"The real identifier, the motivation, of why Mr Brogden was on that boat was so Mr Butler could 'scare him straight'," Mr Crane said.
But the court heard the trip escalated when Parnell shot Mr Brogden in the head and his body was rolled out of the boat and into the ocean.
Butler's barrister Scott Lynch said his client had not known Parnell had brought a gun on the boat.
The court heard that while Butler had intended to seriously assault Mr Brogden, he had not intended to kill him.
Mr Lynch submitted that his client had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, rather than let the matter go to trial.
'Too scared to go to bed'
Standing with tear-filled eyes and a choke in her voice, Mr Brogden's mother told the court about the horror of the last 15 years when her son "vanished".
"I kept the back light on for months, too scared to go to bed in case I heard some news, in case by some miracle Jay had come home."
Ms Merritt told the court her son had been about to return to his family in New South Wales before he was killed.
"He had a job lined up, had his 21st birthday with us, and then in a few short weeks you took it all away. Our lives have been in turmoil ever since."
Looking at her son's accused killer, Ms Merritt told the court that not knowing what happened had crippled her family.
"Within our search for Jay we were thrown into a world we did not know and people we hope to never meet again," she said.
"It is my hope that one day I can think of Jay and enjoy the good memories of our time without being haunted by the faces of those who took his life in the background."
Immediate parole eligibility
Justice David North acknowledged Butler had twice lied to authorities, first in 2007 and again in front of a coroner in 2014.
"You had reached an agreement with Parnell to seriously assault Brogden. It was a crime of violence and it was planned," Justice North said.
The judge took into consideration the four years Butler had been in custody since he was arrested in 2019 and deemed it time served.
The court heard manslaughter had a maximum of life imprisonment.
Butler was convicted and sentenced to eight years jail, with immediate parole eligibility.
