TWO white supremacists have been sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in jail for murdering a 42-year-old man by bludgeoning him to death with a hammer as he slept in his Perth home.
Father-of-one Alan Taylor was killed in April 2016 at the Girrawheen house he shared with his son’s mother, Melony Jane Attwood, 37, who led the neo-Nazi group Aryan Girls, and her 22-year-old live-in lover Robert Edhouse, who was the president of Aryan Nations.
Attwood appeared to briefly faint as WA Supreme Court Justice Lindy Jenkins described the extent of Mr Taylor’s head injuries during sentencing on Tuesday, drawing scoffs of disbelief from the victim’s supporters.
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READ NOWBut she and Edhouse barely reacted when they were handed their matching sentences.
Edhouse’s former friend and acolyte, Corey Joshua Dymock, 21, who was acquitted of murder but found guilty of being an accessory, was jailed for five years and will be eligible for parole after serving three.
A fourth person, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to murder and was previously given a reduced sentence for testifying.
The trial heard the group went to a cinema to watch The Jungle Book after the killing in a bid to create a false alibi and Attwood made a distressed-sounding triple-zero when she returned home.
Attwood and Edhouse’s motive for the killing was getting hold of a $1 million life insurance policy they believed Mr Taylor had and to end the relationship Attwood had had enough of.
Justice Jenkins described the premeditated killing as vicious and horrendous, saying it was degrading Mr Taylor had been left to die alone for hours, bleeding and naked.
Edhouse was also sentenced to 10 months, to be served concurrently, for attacking Dymock in the dock moments after he was convicted in March following about four days of jury deliberations.
He had to be restrained by security guards after he threw punches and threatened to kill Dymock, and was charged with contempt of court.
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