Mark Rodney Jones’s lawyer says murderer was rehabilitated but prosecutors say he showed no remorse

A convicted killer’s acts of torture were premeditated and the resulting death was a “serious example” of the crime of murder, a court has heard.

Mark Rodney Jones pictured competing in a body building contest. Jones has been found guilty of the murder of Bradley Breward. Picture: Rx Muscle

MURDERER Mark Rodney Jones had a “chequered start to life” but had “rehabilitated himself” by the time he tortured and killed a man over a missing ute, his lawyer has told a court.

Jones waterboarded Bradley Breward, twice suffocated him with a plastic bag and later weighed down the deceased 22-year-old’s body and dumped it in a lake near Devonport on New Year’s Day 2017.

A jury last week unanimously found Jones, 43, of West Launceston, guilty of murder.

During sentencing submissions on Thursday, Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC told the Supreme Court in Launceston that it was “common sense” that Jones’s actions would cause Mr Breward to die.

Mr Coates said Jones had been warned by both Ricky John Izard, 28, who went with him to the Newnham unit, and the victim himself that Mr Breward was dying.

In arguing Jones’s violence was premeditated, Mr Coates also referred to text messages Jones had sent friends in the weeks leading up to the murder, in which he said he was going to waterboard Mr Breward and kill him “many times over”.

Jones had spent three weeks obsessed with finding his stolen Nissan Patrol and Mr Breward, whom he believed had stolen it.

“Although all murders are a serious offence, it is my submission this is a serious example,” Mr Coates said.

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

Jones was convicted of four counts of rape in 1998 and throttled the 17-year-old victim so badly that Mr Coates said “a medical practitioner expressed the opinion it was a strangulation injury that could have been life threatening”.

Jones’s lawyer Greg Richardson said his client “grew up in a family environment characterised by extreme violence”.

But Mr Richardson said Jones, a self-employed builder and father-of-two, had rehabilitated himself and “didn’t ask to be dragged into the series of events that led to the death of Mr Breward”.

While Mr Coates said there was “no evidence of immediate remorse”, Mr Richardson said Jones had expressed it in an interview with detectives on the day of his arrest, when he said he felt “disgusting” about the fact Mr Breward died as a result of him trying to get his car back.

Mr Richardson tendered a letter written by Jones after Justice Robert Pearce said he “[didn’t] accept that’s a clear expression of remorse”.

Jones’s lawyer also hit out at media reports of Jones’s prior rape conviction, saying the coverage had led to “half the lowlifes in Launceston” harassing Jones’s partner at her home.

“At a time when we’re all talking about press freedoms, I’m starting to wonder whether that’s actually a good thing,” Mr Richardson said.

Justice Pearce remanded Jones to reappear for sentencing on Friday, when Izard, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, aggravated burglary and perverting the course of justice, is also due to be sentenced.