Stephen Staff: Wollongong man to be sentenced for manslaughter of Matthew Davis

A woman has shared her sorrow after losing her son in a brutal Illawarra bashing, telling a court she will “never be called mum again”.

Stephen Staff is arrested. Picture: NSW Police

The mother and stepfather of a man killed in a brutal attack in his Illawarra home have shared their heartbreak, almost three years after his death.

“I will never be called mum again,” Matthew Davis’ mother, Leanne Brightmore, said in the NSW Supreme Court at Wollongong on Friday, months after Stephen Staff, 67, was found guilty of the 31-year-old man’s manslaughter.

Staff stood trial in May over the August 2021 death of Mr Davis, who was brutally beaten and strangled to death after three people entered his Warilla home.

The 67-year-old, whose DNA was later found at the scene, is the only person to have been charged over the incident.

He was charged with murder eight months after the death, but a jury ultimately acquitted him of that allegation and instead convicted him of the alternative of manslaughter.

Matthew Davis was killed in his Wollongong home in 2021. Picture: NSW Police

The court previously heard a friend of Mr Davis had found him dead inside his home two days after the killing.

During Staff’s week-long trial, Crown prosecutor Nerissa Keay told the jury the reason for the attack was not clear.

Stephen Staff’s sentence hearing was held in the Wollongong courthouse on Friday. Picture: Dylan Arvela

However, jurors heard Mr Davis struggled with a gambling addiction – mostly related to football and online poker – and may have had unpaid debts at the time of his death.

Defence barrister Tony Evers told the jury Staff only entered the home after the attack began.

On Friday, the court heard Staff’s DNA had been found at the scene of Mr Davis’ death, including on a bloodied tea towel in the victim’s laundry and under the 31-year-old’s fingernails.

During Friday’s sentence hearing, Ms Brightmore and Mr Davis’ stepfather, Dan Prestige, told the court of their heartbreak.

Ms Brightmore, who lives in Queensland, said she would call her son every day.

“A few days after the trial ended, it was Mother’s Day,” she said.

“I didn’t get a call this year.

“I won’t get a call from him again.”

Ms Brightmore said the death of her son ruined her mental health and turned her life “upside down”.

“I used to be a very social person, but since the death, I’ve isolated myself,” she said.

“I miss him. I miss my son.”

Meanwhile, Mr Prestige said he was honoured to have had Mr Davis accept him as his father.

“I’ve known Matt for over 10 years,” he said.

“We had a close relationship; we would drink, laugh, have a punt.

“Now there’s no more laughs, no more chats.”

Mr Prestige said he still, years on, struggled to sleep.

“We now know how Matt died and we know [Staff’s] role in it,” he said.

“He was brutally bashed and strangled in his own home.

“I could not comprehend what my boy went through.”

Justice Julia Lonergan adjourned Staff’s matter for sentencing in Sydney on September 14.

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