Gregory Lee Roser found guilty of horror woodchipper murder of Bruce Saunders

A man has been found guilty and sentenced to life in jail for a murder and body disposal deemed by the judge as being “beyond the imagination of any decent human being”.

A kind, loving father was in the clutches of “a rare breed of evil” when he was lured to a property, clubbed to death by a friend and fed through a woodchipper at the behest of his former partner, a judge has said.

Gregory Lee Roser, 63, was yesterday found guilty of the murder of Nambour butcher Bruce Saunders on a property outside Gympie in November 2017.

After a five week trial, a jury found Roser had struck Mr Saunders to death with an iron bar at Goomboorian after a day of clearing trees for a widowed friend.

Gregory Lee Roser (left) has been found guilty of the murder of Bruce Saunders

Roser was in cahoots with Mr Saunders’ former partner, Sharon Graham, who was the sole beneficiary of the victim’s life insurance policy which he increased to $750,000 the week before he was murdered, the jury heard.

Graham, who pleaded not guilty to murder, will be tried next year.

In late 2017 Graham organised for the victim, her new partner Roser and Peter Koenig to clear trees on a friend’s property.

On the third weekend as the men were finishing up for the day, Roser used a bar to bash Mr Saunders head several times.

Sharon Graham.

He and Koenig, also a former lover of Graham who has already been sentenced for accessory after the fact to murder, disposed of Mr Saunders’ dead body through a woodchipper leaving just his legs protruding from the industrial size machine, which he initially claimed was an accident, the court heard.

Justice Martin Burns said Mr Saunders was a “good man” whose choice of sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy could be understood by “the clutch of evil, and a rare brand of evil it was, which took a hold of him”.

“He was kind and generous to a fault that probably became a fatal fault,” he said.

“He had something of a relationship with a woman who decided that Mr Saunders had to be killed.

“I have no doubt that she was the mastermind of those plans as well as the plan that was eventually settled on.”

Justice Burns said Roser’s reasons for carrying out her plans, other than to please her, had not been explained beyond his barrister’s submission that he was “either too stupid or too weak” to resist her.

“That you were prepared to snuff out the life of another human being in such circumstances and based on such a flimsy connection makes you a particularly dangerous individual,” Justice Burns said.

Blake Saunders, the son of murder victim Bruce Saunders. (Image/Josh Woning)

Roser was sentenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 20 years.

Mr Saunders’ son Blake said he didn’t want his father remembered as the woodchipper victim but a loving dad “who tried to help as many people as he could”.

“I’m just glad that justice was served. I can’t thank everyone who helped enough, especially the detectives,” he said outside court.

Originally published as Gregory Lee Roser found guilty of horror woodchipper murder of Bruce Saunders