Anthony Oliver guilty of murdering Norm Cheney and hiding body in cement-filled barrel and dumping in river

A "COWARDLY" killer has been jailed for life for murdering his mate, stuffing his body into a concrete-filled drum and dumping it in a river.

A "COWARDLY" killer has been sent to jail for life for murdering his best mate by shooting him in the back of the head, stuffing his body into a concrete-filled drum and dumping it in the Caboolture River.

A jury in the Supreme Court of Brisbane took less than an hour to find Anthony Charles Oliver, 38, guilty of the "brutal" killing of Norm Cheney, 41, on December 20, 2010.

He remained motionless in the prisoner's dock as the verdict was handed down and his victim's family read powerful statements to the court about the impact of his senseless crime.

Mr Cheney's daughters Jessina, 19, and Aimee, 17, held hands as they told the court about the day their father was taken from them: "The hardest goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained."

"I think my father died suffering," Jessina Cheney said.

"I will never forget what was done to him.

"This barbaric and horrendous act is not only indescribable but more importantly, inexcusable. No human being should spend his final moments like my father did.''

His youngest child, an eight-year-old son called Shay, was not in court on the advice of a child psychologist.

Mr Cheney's sister Deborah Tosh said her brother's biggest weakness was his "willingness to trust''.

She detailed how her younger brother had suffered severe burns in an accident during the school holidays as a teenager when he pretended to be a stunt man.

She made eye-contact with Oliver as he sat in the dock and said he was a different man to the one she met in 2009, then skinny and with long-straggly hair.

Oliver's hair was cut short during the trial, he wore a suit and told the jury he had gained weight.

Ms Tosh said she fought daily to remove the image from her mind of Mr Cheney's ravaged remains.

"How do you erase such a picture from your mind? You don't,'' she said.

"You live with it every day, it's there when you go to sleep at night, it's in your nightmares, it's there when you wake up, it does not go away.

"This is my life sentence.''

The jury rejected Oliver's story that he wet himself moments after shooting Mr Cheney dead in self-defence because he believed the dead man wanted to set him on fire with petrol and a lighter.

Oliver then drove the dead man to his sister's property at Esk and recruited them to help him set Mr Cheney's body in concrete, dispose of the evidence and dump it into the Caboolture River.

The Courier-Mail can reveal for the first time Oliver's sister Jenny and partner Peter Harris were sentenced in the Supreme Court of Brisbane in June for their part in covering up the crime.

Justice Margaret Wilson sentenced Harris to five-years jail suspended after 12-months while Jenny Oliver was released on a wholly-suspended jail term.

Justice Wilson said Oliver's crime was "brutal and cowardly" and had taken a devastating toll on Mr Cheney's family.

"Even if much of the evidence that you gave during the trial about your background is to be accepted, it was no excuse for what you did,'' she said.

"Under the law there is only one sentence I may impose, and that's life imprisonment.

"I impose that sentence.''

She took into account 991 days Oliver served in pre-sentence custody.