After being violently sexually assaulted Lynette Daley lay naked and bleeding to death on a remote beach near Illuka.
Six-and-a-half years later, Adrian Attwater and Paul Maris have spent their first nights behind bars after a jury found them guilty this week of her death and rape.
Ms Daley, 33, died from injuries sustained in the “wild sex session” with her “on-again-off-again” boyfriend Attwater and his friend Maris on a 2011 Australia Day camping trip to Ten Mile Beach.
The five-week trial at the NSW Supreme Court in Coffs Harbour heard the trio had been drinking heavily and driving up and down the beach in Maris’ troop carrier.
At one point Attwater and a blind drunk Ms Daley got on a mattress in the back of the vehicle where he “repeatedly and vigorously” sexually assaulted her, the trial heard.
Maris, 47, then joined in with a sex act at Attwater’s invitation, which the pair claimed was consensual.
Attwater, 42, only stopped the assault when he noticed blood on his hand, crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said.
The court heard the extensive injuries to Ms Daley caused significant blood loss.
“She’s lying naked in the back of the troop carrier for hours after she’s injured,” Mr Strickland said at the trial.
The injuries would have been obvious to the men, who had a duty of care to help Ms Daley in a timely manner, he said.
But instead, Maris burnt Ms Daley’s clothing and the bloodstained mattress while Attwater dragged her into the ocean to try to wash the blood off her body, he said.
Attwater claimed she’d had a fit or seizure in the ocean when she went for a swim and he performed CPR after dragging her back to shore.
He later said “I didn’t know a f***ing hug can kill you”.
On Wednesday a jury took just over half-an-hour to find Attwater guilty of manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault, and Maris guilty of aggravated sexual assault and hindering the discovery of evidence.
The pair had been on bail throughout the trial but were taken into custody after the verdicts.
It’s been a long wait for Ms Daley’s family – Attwater and Maris were charged years ago but the Department of Public Prosecutions initially refused to prosecute them.
It wasn’t until public pressure increased after a coronial inquest and a 2016 ABC TV report on Four Corners that the DPP said it would take the pair to trial.
They are due to face a sentencing hearing on November 3.
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