VIDEO: Gary Stewart Miles guilty of setting Paul John Stamp alight over a beer

THE PARENTS of murder victim Paul John Stamp have thanked police, witnesses and the jury after the guilty verdict of their son's killer.

Paul John Stamp murder scene

THE PARENTS of murder victim Paul John Stamp have thanked police, witnesses and the jury after the guilty verdict of their son's killer.

 

Gary Stewart Miles has been found guilty of murdering Mr Stamp over beer - by trapping him in the boot of car which he set alight in a Darwin industrial area.

Miles, 41, sat emotionless in the box as the NT Supreme Court jury unanimously read out four guilty verdicts of murder, causing serious harm, holding Mr Stamp against his will, and of arson.

Mr Stamp's mother, Helen, shrieked and cried after the first verdict was read.

Outside the court Mr Stamp's father Jack said he was "very happy and relieved" with the decision.

They said they have been considering staying in the Top End until sentencing, before driving 4000km with their caravan back to Belmont in Lake Macquarie, in New South Wales.

During the trial Crown prosecutor Paul Usher said Miles and co-accused Gregory Channing returned to Mr Miles' unit in the early hours of the morning of September 19, 2012 to find a beer was missing from the fridge.

Mr Usher said the two men woke Mr Stamp in his bedroom and bashed him unconscious before dragging him down the front stairs and locking him in the boot of the car.

"They discussed driving into the bush or an industrial area and leaving him there so he could find his own way home," Mr Usher said.

Instead Mr Channing ran out of fuel on Bombing Road, Winnellie, the court heard.

Mr Miles allegedly poured fuel over the vehicle and set it alight.

"Gary Miles ignited the vehicle with a cigarette lighter causing a raging fire," Mr Usher said.

Mr Stamp arrived in the NT from Western Australia - seeking work in the mines - on September 11, 2012.

Fire-fighters and police were called to a car blaze about 3am in Bombing Road, Winnellie - eight days later.

"He was in Darwin for eight days - now he's gone," Mr Stamp's father Jack said.

Paul's brother Craig wrote on the NT News Facebook page soon after his brother's body was identified: "This was my brother , he had only been there a week just got a new job".

Miles will be sentenced this Friday.