A couple enjoying a lunchtime walk on Sydney’s outskirts stumbled across something they would never forget – the naked body of father-of-two Jamie Phillips on a vacant suburban lot.
In remote bushland 15 kilometres away, firefighters battled a blaze that had spread from a 44-gallon drum in which the 46-year-old’s clothes had been doused in petrol and set alight.
Jamie Phillips was fatally stabbed in the heart during a fight over drugs.Credit: NSW Police
Six years later, three men have been jailed over the manslaughter of Phillips, who was fatally stabbed in the heart during a fight over drugs inside a home in Sydney’s south-west.
Delivering judgment in the NSW District Court, Judge Garry Neilson outlined the agreed facts, which stated Phillips visited a female friend’s Ambarvale home on October 24, 2018, where he took ice.
What unfolded over several hours inside what was referred to as “bedroom three” was horrific.
An altercation broke out between Phillips and the three offenders, Sean O’Keefe, Nathan McIvor and Barry Cavanagh, in the locked bedroom.
Nathan McIvor is arrested at a St Helen’s Park home in 2019.Credit: NSW Police
The female friend, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was in an adjacent room and heard banging noises including furniture moving and a “thump now and again”, Neilson said. The woman heard one of the offenders say, “Shut the f--- up, bro” and “just be f---ing quiet”.
McIvor and Cavanagh each assaulted Phillips before O’Keefe stabbed him through the chest, causing a 21-millimetre wound that directly penetrated his heart.
Phillips also suffered fractures to his neck and nose, injuries to his arms and legs, and bruises and cuts to his scalp and face caused by blunt-force head injuries.
The men put his body in a blue Ford Fiesta, and at about 12:30pm, O’Keefe and McIvor drove to the nearby suburb of Glen Alpine and dumped Phillips’ naked body in the vacant lot.
They had earlier picked up an old drum, which they put the dead man’s clothes in and set alight, with the fire spreading to surrounding bushland in Appin and causing the Rural Fire NSW Service to attend the scene.
Police at the scene near a block of land in Glen Alpine, where Phillips’ body was found.
It took just 30 minutes for the local couple out walking to discover Phillips’ body on the Glen Alpine lot.
At the Ambarvale home, police found blood splattered on the walls and furniture inside the bedroom as well as a pool of blood on the floor.
The exact cause and circumstances of the fight between the offenders and Phillips was never determined, beyond the fact it was over drugs.
“In stabbing the deceased, [O’Keefe] used force that involved the infliction of death and was conduct which was not a reasonable response in the circumstances, but was conduct he believed was necessary to defend himself,” Neilson said.
O’Keefe was jailed for seven years and three months with a non-parole period of five years and one month for manslaughter. McIvor and Cavanagh were jailed for a minimum of one year and eight months and one year and one month respectively for accessory after the manslaughter and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Neilson described the attack on Phillips as “reactive and impulsive”.
“It has been a disaster for the deceased’s family and the offender himself, but it was not planned or premeditated,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.