Noel Nicholas Hilder pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Wayne John Thackrah

The heartbroken mother and daughter of a man who died after a horrific attack have spoken of their unbearable pain as the homeless man responsible faced his punishment.

A heartbroken mother has sobbed as she spoke of her unbearable pain and grief in front of the man whose brutal attack claimed the life of her 58-year-old son.

Noel Nicholas Hilder, 66, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter on Monday as the family of his victim, Wayne John Thackrah, watched on.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Cook said Mr Thackrah had been living alone in his unit at Alice St, Pialba, when the attack happened in January 2019.

He had a white Ford ute that he was known to be protective of, Mr Cook said, and on the night of the incident, he had seen Hilder trying to get into his car.

Hilder, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was seen behaving in an “erratic” fashion in the time leading up to the incident, and the court heard he had not been taking his medication.

Noel Nicholas Hilder, 66, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter on Monday as the family of his victim, Wayne John Thackrah, watched on.

Mr Cook said the two men were not known to each other.

Hilder was yelling outside and had been “testing the door handles” on Mr Thackrah’s car, Mr Cook said.

Mr Thackrah confronted him, believing he was trying to steal his car.

Hilder then lashed out, punching Mr Thackrah and delivering blows to his head.

Mr Thackrah would later die in hospital of his injuries.

After hearing in court of the brutal attack on her son, Betty Thackrah read out her victim impact statement, often glancing over at Hilder, who was sitting in the dock.

Through tears Ms Thackrah spoke of the unbearable pain of losing her child in those circumstances, sitting by his side as he was in hospital.

“I’ve never felt so helpless,” she said.

Ms Thackrah described seeing his apartment, where Mr Thackrah had bled extensively from his wounds after the attack, and seeing the bathroom and bed linen “soaked in blood”.

Looking directly at Hilder, Ms Thackrah said when she saw him in hospital, she thought “god, what had that person done to my son”.

She then described the heartbreaking moment doctors talked to her about turning off the machines that were keeping her son alive.

She was told the heartbreaking truth – he might never wake and if he did, he would have little quality of life.

So the shattering decision was made to let her son go, “a decision a mother should never have to make”.

“Forgiveness will never, ever be given by me,” she said.

“He chose to do what he did, not walk away.”

Wayne Thackrah died after he was attacked near his unit in Pialba.

Mr Thackrah’s daughter Lesley also addressed the court.

She said while theirs was not the standard “father-daughter relationship” there was never a shortage of love and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s just really unfortunate and painful it had to end like this,” she said.

She said she and her father had a falling out before he died and she had stopped making contact, which now she regretted.

She said she hated to think he died without knowing how much she loved him.

Lesley described flying to Brisbane as her father was being transferred, repeating over and over in her head, “hold in there dad, hold in there”.

But what was waiting was the sight of her father being kept alive by machines.

She said the gaping hole in her heart would always remain.

Justice Applegarth said in the case of manslaughter, there was not just one victim as it impacted on whole families.

“There’s a ripple effect,” he said.

“Here, the ripple effect is more like a wave of grief than a ripple.”

Hilder had spent about three years and 10 months in presentence custody, Justice Applegarth said.

He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

Hilder was given immediate parole eligibility.

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