A teenage boy's life was "tragically and inhumanely" taken away just as he was getting it back on track when he was tortured and killed in a Sydney share house, a court has heard.
Justin Tsang, 17, died at a home in Burwood Heights on March 12, 2019, after being beaten for a prolonged period by a group of teenagers, some of whom "did not even know him".
He was a few months away from his 18th birthday when his body was found buried in a shallow grave in the Blue Mountains, his father told the NSW Supreme Court.
Yigit Erdogan, a casual acquaintance of Mr Tsang and the man police say was the ringleader in the deadly assault, on Friday faced a sentence hearing before the court.
Yan Yong, Mr Tsang's father, urged Justice Mark Ierace to impose a sentence that would ensure Erdogan could "not take away any more precious lives".
He said his son's death had shattered a tight-knit family, and images of Mr Tsang being tortured in his last moments flashed "over and over in my mind" every day.
"I cannot explain how it feels that my son was not only murdered for a trivial matter, but he was tortured," Mr Yong said.
"These murderers did not even know him but they killed him, and even went out of their way to bury him and hide his innocent body."
Erdogan, now 22, was this year found guilty of murder by a jury.
The court has heard Erdogan drove Mr Tsang to the share house on March 11, 2019, and later falsely accused him of stealing money and property belonging to other residents.
After the boy was stripped down to his underwear, detained and beaten with a metal wrench and cricket bat, a drug-fuelled Erdogan decided Mr Tsang had to die so he wouldn't "snitch" to police.
Erdogan stomped on his head and stabbed him dozens of times in the neck with a knife, the court has heard.
Mr Yong told the court he could not have asked for a better son as he remembered his "infectious laugh and big smile".
The grieving father said Mr Tsang had only recently emerged from a year-long depression, when he often holed up in his bedroom, before he was murdered.
"Life was looking so much better for him. He applied for a job at KFC and began socialising with his friends again," he said.
"Ultimately, it was all tragically and inhumanely taken away from him.
"Now all we have left from him is the heartache of how he was brutally murdered and the knowledge our family will never be whole again."
Two other men, Joel Robertson and Christopher Hopkinson, were last year jailed for 13 years and 2 months and 12 years and 9 months respectively for their roles in the murder.
They were both 18 at the time of the incident and each pleaded guilty to murder in August 2020.
Robertson admitted to striking Justin in the head with a cricket bat in an attempt to kill him in the latter stages of the assault.
He later said he was handed the bat by Erdogan and was trying to "put the guy out of his misery".
Hopkinson did not take part in the assault but confessed to helping guard Mr Tsang during the ordeal.
Both men assisted in cleaning the room where Mr Tsang had been held and wrapping up his body in plastic after his death.
Justice Ierace expressed his condolences to Mr Tsang's friends and family as he reserved his judgment on Erdogan's sentence.
It will be handed down later this year.
