Perth man jailed for ‘unsophisticated’ wheelie bin murder over drug debt
A Perth man who killed his drug dealer by stabbing him multiple times before dumping his body into a dam in an “inept and unsophisticated” plan has been jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 19 years behind bars.
Dinh Lam Nguyen, 51, was murdered by Todd Nathan Kiernan and Gervaise Sakib Geoffrey Widdowson on January 20, 2021.
The grim discovery of the body inside a wheelie bin was made by a 15-year-old boy.Credit:Supreme Court of Western Australia
The pair placed Nguyen’s body – wrapped in pink plastic and bound with ties – into a wheelie bin and drove out to Glen Brook Dam in John Forrest National Park.
They weighed the bin down with a bag of cement and a log in the hope the bin would remain hidden under the water, but it floated back up. His body was discovered days later by a 15-year-old boy.
While the pair initially pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, the jury disagreed, finding them each guilty of the murder last month.
State prosecutor Justin Whalley said Kiernan had owed Nguyen $4000 after purchasing methamphetamine from him, and that Nguyen had been desperate to be repaid as he was having financial difficulty.
“Mr Kiernan had no intent of paying anything … the preferable course would be to kill his creditor and clear the debt that way,” he said.
It was Kiernan that stabbed Nguyen close to 30 times inside his Mahogany Creek home on January 20.
Nguyen also received five incised wounds on his hands which, during sentencing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Wednesday, Justice Stephen Hall said was a sign he had tried to defend himself.
Hall said Nguyen had been struck on the back of his head with a tomahawk after he arrived at Kiernan’s home, before being stabbed.
He said to kill someone over such a small amount of money was an indication of desperation, but also proved Kiernan had a “complete lack of principle.”
“You ended his life in a sudden and brutal way,” Hall said.
“Whatever failings he had, Mr Nguyen did not deserve to die this way… he may have been able to turn his life around, but now he will not get the chance.”
Hall said Kiernan had not shown any remorse or accountability for his actions, but that it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt the murder was premeditated, due to Kiernan’s “inept and unsophisticated plan.”
The pink plastic which Kiernan had wrapped the body in had a sticker on it with his address, as did a letter found at the bottom of the wheelie bin.
Whalley said it was a “brutal, senseless and intentional killing” and the “callous” treatment of the body was an aggravating factor.
A letter found within the contents of the wheelie bin was one of many clues that led detectives to arrest Todd Kiernan. Credit:Supreme Court of Western Australia
He said a significant non-parole period should be given.
Before her client was sentenced, Kiernan’s defence lawyer Elizabeth Needham said much of his adult life had been spent in custody or mired by drugs.
She said his family would support the father of three when he was released, and their support was shown in the letters they had provided to the court.
The body was wrapped in a plastic sheet which previously contained a new mattress purchased by Todd Kiernan, with the identifying sticker still on it. Credit:Supreme Court of Western Australia
Hall sentenced Kiernan to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 19 years before he will be eligible for parole. Kiernan was also sentenced to four years for setting Nguyen’s car on fire after he murdered him, which will run concurrently to his life sentence.
Widdowson was also listed for sentence on Wednesday, but his lawyer Tony Hager said his client would benefit from a neuropsychological report.
Hager said his client still had a bullet fragment lodged in his skull from a previous police incident in 2019 and required ongoing medication and care, which he had not been receiving in a timely manner in custody.
Widdowson will be sentenced in February.
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