Accused killer Mark Rodney Jones told police he tortured Bradley Breward but ‘didn’t think it would harm him’, court hears

An accused murderer said his acts of torture were “not like on TV where you see this happen and everyone’s OK” and that his alleged victim “had no respect at all for his own life”, a court has heard.

Bradley Breward, 22, was allegedly murdered on New Year’s Day 2017. Picture: SUPPLIED

ACCUSED murderer Mark Rodney Jones claimed he was inspired to torture Bradley Breward based on things he saw on television and thought the 22-year-old showed “no care for his own life”.

In a two-hour long interview with detectives after his arrest on February 2, 2017, Mr Jones admitted going to a Newnham unit where he had been told Mr Breward was staying, waterboarding him and suffocating him with a plastic bag, before buying an inflatable raft and disposing of his dead body in Lake Eugenana, near Devonport.

The jury in the Supreme Court in Launceston was shown the full interview on Friday, in which Mr Jones said he was remorseful for what happened but “didn’t think it would harm him that greatly”.

The court heard Mr Jones found Mr Breward on New Year’s Day 2017 after a tip-off, tied him up with the help of an accomplice and began punching Mr Breward, demanding to know where his stolen ute was.

“You get these ideas off TV and I think there was a hand towel nearby, and I waterboarded him,” Mr Jones said.

MORE FROM THE TRIAL:

COURT TOLD DECEASED MAN WAS TORTURED

ACCUSED SOUGHT ADVICE ON 'WASTE DISPOSAL'

WOMAN TIPPED OFF ACCUSED KILLER

BREWARD'S DESPERATE PLEA: 'YOU'RE KILLING ME'

Mr Jones, 43, of West Launceston, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, told detectives Mr Breward didn’t reveal where the ute was but said things that he found “confusing”.

Mr Jones said he used a plastic bag to suffocate Mr Breward for about 40 seconds.

“He was saying things like he was going to die anyway and ‘who gives a f...’ — really stupid s... that I didn’t understand and couldn’t fathom that someone in that position would say that,” Mr Jones said.

“He really had no respect at all for his own life, or care for his own life.”

The court heard that, after Mr Jones suffocated Mr Breward with a plastic bag a second time, the 22-year-old stopped responding.

“It didn’t feel like it was happening at the time but the last thing I understood that he said was ‘I’m gone’ and at the time I just thought ‘don’t be so f...ing stupid — you’re not dying, there’s nothing that bad that I’ve done to you to inflict death upon someone’,” Mr Jones told police.

“To me, he was just annoying and being defiant and being a f...head.”

The state’s chief forensic pathologist Dr Donald Ritchie also gave evidence, saying Mr Breward’s body was badly decomposed by the time he performed an autopsy but that two rib fractures he found appeared to have been sustained shortly before death.

Prosecutor Daryl Coates, SC put the waterboarding and suffocation scenario to Dr Ritchie and asked whether it would likely be enough to have caused him to lose consciousness.

“Not only that but that’s plenty to cause somebody to have cardiac arrest and die, and that’s what I believe happened to Mr Breward,” Dr Ritchie said.

In his interview with police, Mr Jones said it was “not like on TV where you see this happen and everyone’s OK”.

He said he had tried to revive Mr Breward but that the unit’s occupant, Cody Lee, urged him to get rid of the body and clean up the mess.

The court heard Mr Breward’s body was placed in a bean bag, wrapped in a tarp and eventually taken to Lake Eugenana, where Mr Jones attached weights he had retrieved from a friend’s house and dumped the body.

Mr Breward’s clothes, a blow-up raft they used to get rid of the body, and the clothes Mr Jones and his accomplice were wearing were all burnt at a George Town property.

Mr Jones told police he concealed what had happened because he “didn’t want to get caught” and because “everyone knew” he had been looking for his ute and Mr Breward on social media.

“It was huge, it was like the biggest snowball I’ve ever seen created online,” Mr Jones said.

The trial, before Justice Robert Pearce, continues.