Mark Rodney Jones ditches murder appeal as teen witness case finally revealed

A man who waterboarded and suffocated a young Launceston man has dropped his appeal as a gag order is lifted on a witness to the torture.

Former body builder Mark Rodney Jones has dropped his appeal against his sentence for the murder of Bradley Breward. Picture: Rx Muscle

CONVICTED murderer Mark Rodney Jones, who waterboarded and suffocated his victim with a plastic bag before dumping him in a lake, has withdrawn his bid for a shorter stint in prison.

The news comes with the lifting of a gag order over the case of terrified witness Cody James Lee, who failed to report the killing of his 22-year-old friend Bradley Breward.

Jones, a 44-year-old former body builder and convicted rapist, is currently serving a 22-year jail sentence, with a non-parole period of 13 years, after murdering Mr Breward in Launceston on New Year’s Day 2017.

MURDERER HAS NO CASH TO APPEAL AGAINST HIS SENTENCE

MARK RODNEY JONES SHOWED NO REMORSE, SAY PROSECUTORS

In December last year, the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Jones wanted to appeal against his “manifestly excessive” sentence but could not afford the legal fees.

This week, the court heard Jones’s appeal bid would not proceed, meaning the murderer must now wait until February 2030 before becoming eligible for parole.

With Jones’s appeal bid abandoned, the Mercury can now reveal Lee had his jail term heavily slashed in 2018 after a judge found the teen was terrified of retribution – and after he finally came on board as a key Crown witness.

Lee, then 19, was jailed in September 2017 for three-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years, for failing to report a killing – only the eighth person in Tasmania convicted and sentenced since the crime came into existence in 2003.

Bradley Breward was killed on New Year’s Day 2017. Picture: SUPPLIED

But according to a March 2018 Court of Criminal Appeal judgment, which has until now remained under wraps, Lee had that term slashed to 15 months with a non-parole period of seven-and-a-half months.

Chief Justice Alan Blow said Lee was at his Newnham home and Mr Breward was asleep on his couch, when Jones and Ricky John Izard – who was later jailed for manslaughter – walked in.

Mr Breward was brutally beaten, had his hands tied, and was unable to breathe with water poured over his face.

Jones then put a supermarket bag over Mr Breward’s head and counted to 40, with the youth losing consciousness.

The trio unsuccessfully tried to revive Mr Breward with CPR before Jones and Izard took his body away and dumped it in Lake Eugenana.

A police forensics specialist investigating the disappearance of Bradley Breward in 2017.

Chief Justice Blow said Lee did not take part in the attack, but did not tell police what had happened when he was interviewed four times over the coming month.

On February 2, he finally told the truth and Mr Breward’s badly decomposed body was retrieved from the water the following day.

Chief Justice Blow, in allowing Lee’s appeal, noted his youth, the fact he tried to revive Mr Breward, his fear of retribution, his terror and his early plea of guilty.

He also said his willingness to give evidence against Jones and Izard as the only eye witness was a significant mitigating factor in re-sentencing.