The two swingers who pleaded guilty to the killing of millionaire Melbourne businessman Herman Rockefeller have been sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mario Schembri was jailed for nine years with a minimum of seven years, and Bernadette Denny for seven years with a minimum of five years, in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Schembri, 58, and Denny, 42, both pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the 51-year-old millionaire married father of two on January 21 after a swingers' encounter rendezvous at the couple's home in Hadfield, in Melbourne's north, went horribly wrong.
Justice Terry Forrest began his sentencing remarks: ‘‘Herman Rockefeller made some unorthodox choices in his adult life. So too did you, Mario Schembri, and you, Bernadette Denny.
‘‘None of those choices was in itself unlawful, nor is it the function of this court to pass judgement on them.
‘‘The upshot of the choices you made, however, is that the scene was set for the totally unnecessary death of a man.
‘‘His parents, wife and children are devastated. The harm that you have caused them is profound.
"They will always carry some legacy of it and so will you.’’
The court earlier heard the couple met Mr Rockefeller, who told them his name was Andrew Kingston, when Denny responded to an advertisement Mr Rockefeller had placed in a sex-swingers magazine.
He had advertised as a married couple looking for discreet sexual encounters, but had arrived at the couple’s Hadfield address in early January without his wife, whose name he told them was Jenny.
The pair had admitted to being angry when Mr Rockefeller showed up alone and requested sex.
The court heard Schembri started wrestling with Mr Rockefeller before the fight continued in several rooms of the house.
The fight continued to the garage where they claim Mr Rockefeller fell and hit his head on the floor.
The pair put Mr Rockefeller in the boot of Schembri’s car and Denny said she could hear him moaning and tapping as they drove towards Heathcote where they planned to dump him.
She later told police he was alive when they had dumped him, which led to an extensive police search of bushland in the area before she changed her story and said they brought him back home to cut his body up in their garage.
Schembri burned the body in a 44-gallon drum in a friend’s backyard in Glenroy.
