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Killer jailed for 'act of thuggery'

Man convicted of the manslaughter of Josh Warneke sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.

The man who killed Josh Warneke as he walked home from a night out with friends in Broome more than four years ago has been jailed for 7 1/2 years.

Gene Gibson was sentenced in the Supreme Court this morning after he pleaded guilty to Mr Warneke’s manslaughter in July.

The 21-year-old was attacked and left in the gutter of Old Broome Road with fatal head injuries in February 2010.

Justice Lindy Jenkins told the court Mr Warneke did nothing to justify the "cowardly act".

"Killing a person is very serious," she said.

"It is made worse by the fact that you hit him from behind. It seems your blow took him by surprise.

"He was an unarmed stranger."

Gibson was "grossly intoxicated" and had been smoking cannabis before he attacked Mr Warneke.

He approached Mr Warneke from behind and hit him in the back of the head with a metal pole after driving past him in a stolen car.

Mr Warneke fell forward and hit his face on the ground before Gibson fled the scene.

Gibson was arrested two years after the Broome apprentice’s death and was originally charged with murder.

The charge was later downgraded after a string of police bungles.

The sentencing was then delayed in August after the court failed to get an interpreter for Gibson, who speaks the Western Desert dialect of Pintibi.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Warneke’s mother Ingrid Bishop described her son as a beautiful soul and said she did not have the words to describe the pain of losing a child.

"You left him there like roadkill, my beautiful boy," she said.

"I cry for him every day. I have no peace and can not rest."

Gibson left the remote Kiwirrkurra community in November 2009 and went to Broome in search of full-strength alcohol.

He had no convictions before he travelled to Broome but soon caught the attention of local police.

Defence lawyer Dominic Brunello told the court his client came from the most remote Aboriginal community in Australia.

He said Gibson had been neglected as a child, was dealing with alcohol and substance abuse issues and felt genuine remorse for what he had done.

But prosecutor Amanda Burrows said Gibson continued drinking after the act of "drunken thuggery" that led to Mr Warneke's death.

"The facts of this particular case are extremely serious," she said.

The West Australian revealed the murder charge against Gibson had been dropped earlier this year after a Supreme Court judge found police had repeatedly ignored the law during interviews with him.

Just weeks before he was due to face trial, Justice Stephen Hall threw out interviews in which Gibson allegedly admitted running over Mr Warneke and hitting him with a rock.

Justice Hall found the officers involved had seriously beached the Criminal Investigation Act, casting doubt on the reliability of evidence.
Gibson's sentence was backdated to August 2012.

He will be eligible for parole after serving 5 1/2 years.

Outside court, Ms Bishop, told reporters she was shocked and appalled by the sentenced and doubted Gibson could be rehabilitated in prison.

“I don't know if I'm trembling from anger or from shock or from total disbelief,” she said.

Ms Bishop said she wanted to see reform in the legal system and hoped for an appeal of the sentence.