Queensland man sentenced to 27 years’ jail for murder of Tia Landers

AS a Queensland couple were jailed for life for the sadistic and prolonged killing of Tia Landers, her mother shared a powerful statement revealing the devastating impact of her daughter’s death.

Tia Landers was murdered at a Brighton home in June 2014.

• Brisbane murder: Killer’s dumping ground revealed

IN the moments after Tia Landers was born, her mother marvelled at how precious she was. Her face was “flawless”. Her skin, “so soft”.

Twenty-nine years later, her daughter’s corpse lay on a cold slab, bearing the signs of a heinous torture and murder.

“This time her face not flawless, her skin not soft ... her body was decomposing and her insides decaying,” Mary Landers wrote in a powerful victim impact statement.

Today, the couple that put her daughter in a shallow forestry grave sat in the prisoners’ dock of the Brisbane Supreme Court as they were sentenced to life in prison over the sadistic slaying.

Linda Appleton and John Edward Harris will have to serve a combined total of 50 years behind bars after Justice Jean Dalton decided to set both their parole eligibility “later than the statutory minimum of 20 years”.

Harris was given a non-parole period of 27 years, while his de facto partner must serve 23 years.

The pair, who last week reversed their pleas, touched hands through a space in the glass divide before Harris was led out of the courtroom.

In the written statement, Mary Landers said evil no longer existed simply in the news or “off in some far away place”.

“It is cemented firmly forever in our family’s history,” she wrote.

She said caring for her daughter’s four children was the reason she was able to rise, dress and put one foot in front of the other.

It came after the court heard details of the couple’s violent criminal pasts, including Harris’ 1999 manslaughter conviction for a crime that bore “striking similarities” to their disposal of Ms Landers’ body.

Tia Landers’ mother Mary outside Brisbane Supreme Court.

Like in the June 2014 case, he dumped his flatmate’s wrapped body in Beerburrum state forest before getting rid of the lounge suite.

Crown prosecutor Phil McCarthy also urged Justice Jean Dalton to place little weight on an apology letter which Appleton had written to Ms Landers’ mother and handed to the court today.

In sentencing the pair, Justice Dalton said the brutal torture of Ms Landers lasted “hours” and involved her being “significantly” cut, punched, kicked and stomped on.

“At one point she was put in a cold shower because she said how poorly she felt,” she said.

“Harris ... thought that would prolong her life or consciousness while the attack on her continued.”

A Facebook image of Tia Landers.

Ultimately, she was given two bullets to the head before a bag was placed over her head.

“ ...[it was] so sadistic and prolonged that one cannot help but conclude that [Harris] was not troubled at all by what he was doing,” she said.

Justice Dalton said Appleton had wanted to seek revenge on Ms Landers, whom she believed had been having an affair with Harris and had stolen her jewellery and clothing.

“You were so possessed with the idea of revenge that, from jail, you were plotting crimes that took place just seven days later,” she told Appleton.

Harris’ defence counsel said his client denied being in a romantic relationship with Ms Landers, while Appleton’s lawyers said she had had a longstanding drug addiction.

John Edward Harris and Linda Eileen Appleton were sentenced in Brisbane’s Supreme Court today, a week after having pleaded guilty, midway through their trial, to murdering Ms Landers in a brutal and bloodied encounter at their Brighton home in June 2014.

Ms Landers was stabbed, stomped on, bashed and shot, with her wounded body found wrapped in a blanket in a shallow grave at the Beerburrum forest more than a fortnight later.

In sentencing Harris and Appleton, Justice Jean Dalton described what they did as sadistic, hideous and disturbing.

Harris was ordered to serve at least 27 years in jail before being eligible for parole, while Appleton must spent at least 23 years behind bars.