Andrew Damien Hallcroft jailed for 15 years after ‘wheelie bin’ murder

A MAN who called his victim a “cockroach” has been jailed for at least 15 years after stabbing him, cutting off his legs and stuffing his body in a wheelie bin.

Andrew Hallcroft is led into the Adelaide Magistrates Court soon after his arrest. Picture: Channel 9

A MAN who described his victim as a “cockroach” who got his “just desserts” has been jailed for at least 15 years for murder after stabbing a man 20 times, cutting off his legs and stuffing his body in a wheelie bin.

Andrew Damien Hallcroft, 48, pleaded guilty to the murder of Allan Lee Ryan on New Year’s Day in Adelaide last year.

After the killing Hallcroft stuffed the body in the bin and left it in the street.

He put the knife he used in his dishwasher.

In sentencing in the Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Trish Kelly said Hallcroft had attacked Mr Ryan over the theft of his prescription medication.

He stabbed his victim in the chest and head and also used a wooden club.

In subsequent interviews with authorities, Hallcroft made the comments about his victim but his counsel, Nick Vadasz, urged Justice Kelly to “take them with a grain of salt”.

Victim Allan Lee Ryan was stabbed multiple times and his legs chopped off.

The wheelie bin where Allan Lee Ryan’s body was dumped.

Mr Vadasz said Hallcroft had an intellectual disability that placed him in the bottom two per cent of the population and possibly had acquired brain damage from alcoholism.

He said in “old language” his client might have been referred to as a “halfwit”.

Justice Kelly said psychiatric reports put some of Hallcroft’s “gormless” behaviour into context and she accepted that Mr Ryan was a deeply unpleasant man.

But she said the fact that he was willing to kill over a few sleeping pills and painkillers showed how cheaply he valued the man’s life.

“All in all, this is a very sad, if not pathetic case,” the judge said.

She imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison and set a non-parole period of 15 years.

As the sentence was handed down a relative of Mr Ryan yelled that: “God may forgive you, but we brothers won’t.”

Originally published as Andrew Damien Hallcroft jailed for 15 years after ‘wheelie bin’ murder