Vigilante who tortured and murdered an innocent dad over false child abuse rumours after getting 'the nod' from victim's wife gets life in jail

The ruthless leader of a vigilante gang that menaced an innocent father with a chainsaw while trying to force a confession out of him for crimes he did not commit has been sentenced to life behind bars. 

Father-of-eight Bradley 'BJ' Lyons, from Lakes Entrance, Victoria, was tortured and executed after being betrayed by his meth-addled wife Jana Hooper. She falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her daughters.

On Monday, Lyons' executioner Albert Thorn, 58, was told he will likely spend the remainder of his life in jail. 

If lucky, Thorn will be in his 90s if he ever enjoys freedom again, with Supreme Court of Victoria Justice Andrew Tinney setting a 32-year non-parole period. 

He has already spent 1727 days behind bars awaiting justice. 

Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia showed Hooper led her husband to his death after 'giving the nod' for Thorn and his mates to enter their house in Victoria's eas and attack him in December 2018. 

Mr Lyons was subjected to hideous torture that left him on the brink of life. 

Aided by another mate, Alec Harvey, and Thorn's drug-addled lieutenant, Nicholas Stefani, Mr Lyons had been abducted from his bedroom and taken to Thorn's property in the boot of a car.

During Stefani's sentence in December over his role in the crime, the court heard a chainsaw was among the gang's torture tools. 

'A chainsaw was held over his head to make him talk, he was punched, hot water from a kettle was poured on him, and Deep Heat was put on his body,' the court heard.

Stefani later told one of Hooper’s own daughters that at the farm, a chainsaw had been held over Mr Lyons and that they kept making him ‘p**s himself’. 

'You said that you and others had held a chainsaw over Lyons’ head trying to get him to confess, and that he had been made to piss himself,' Justice Andrew Tinney said.

'You said to one of the girls that it was your expectation that before the end of the night, Lyons would have the tattoos of the girls’ names cut off him and would "be a few knuckles down".

'You told one of the girls that it made you sick what you "had to do".'

In sentencing Thorn, Justice Tinney described the killer as 'heartless'. 

'Your helpless and vulnerable victim was attacked in his own bedroom, in his own home and was subjected to a drawn-out and shocking series of assaults,' he said. 

'It was a premeditated, heartless crime which would shock any fair minded member of the community.'

Justice Tinney said if Thorn ended up dying in jail, it was his own fault. 

'If the result of that is that you go forward from today with the expectation that you will likely die in custody, that is an unavoidable by product of your heinous crimes and age at which you carried them out,' he said. 

Justice Tinney described Thorn and his crew as mindless thugs hellbent on carrying out vigilante justice. 

'The fact (their actions) were committed in the context of organised vigilante action by a gang of violent and vindictive thugs is a substantially aggravating feature,' he said. 

'You showed not the slightest hint of remorse or regret and anytime between then and now ... you took his life away deliberately and heartlessly. Before doing so you subjecting him to a truly horrifying ordeal over a long period of time. 

'I'm satisfied that you were at the heart of the whole enterprise and that your influence over others, who were much younger than you, was critical to proceedings.'

Thorn had been the leader of a vigilante gang with a very specific hatred for paedophiles.

Such was Thorn's loathing for child abusers, he tattooed the gang's name, Australian Freedom Fighters, across his entire back and posted photographs to Facebook. 

It had been spurious intel provided by Hooper, who shared three biological children with Lyons, that lit Thorn's fuse. 

In December 2018, Hooper told Thorn she believed Mr Lyons was the father of her 16-year-old daughter's child and had also made her 14-year-old daughter pregnant. 

The court heard it was a straight-out lie. 

On Sunday, December 2, 2018, Thorn and his gang raided Mr Lyons' home in what was supposed to be an idiotic attempt to beat a confession out of him.

Harvey struck him with a metal pole and Smith lashed out while holding a cigarette lighter between his fingers as a knuckle duster. 

Stefani forced the barrel of the shotgun into Mr Lyons' mouth and threatened to kill him if he didn’t confess to the sexual assault allegations.

CCTV showed Harvey and Smith run from the home, with Smith falling out of the getaway vehicle driven by yet another mate, Jayden Ball.

Mr Lyons was eventually dragged out of the boot of Thorn's car to an old shed on his property where things went from bad to worse for the terrified dad.

The court heard Thorn was giddy with excitement.

'I could see Bert getting really turned on and getting some sort of pleasure from this,' Ms MacFarlane told the jury.

What happened next is not exactly clear through the cloudy haze of meth-induced accounts that followed.

CCTV captured from a neighbour's property showed Mr Lyons followed his wife into their home blissfully unaware of the horrors about to befall him.

He would not be seen alive again after being stuffed into the boot of his soon-to-be killer's car and driven away.

'The cat's in the bag,' Albert Thorn told the girlfriend of his co-accused Jordan Bottom, who along with Rikki Smith was found not guilty in June of Mr Lyons' murder.

One version had the men sawing Mr Lyons' hand off. 

When they were done, by all accounts without having extracted a confession, Mr Lyons was stuffed back into the boot of Thorn's car. 

With towels taped around his head and his hands bound, Thorn, Smith and Bottom drove out into the wilderness along a dirt track near Double Bridges. 

There Mr Lyons was made to wait while a shallow grave was dug. 

When it was ready, Thorn blasted Mr Lyons in the leg with a .410 shotgun cartridge. 

On his knees, another shot was put into the back of his skull. 

Bottom would later lead police to the burial site, which had a large log dragged over it. 

A single shotgun cartridge remained at the scene. 

The court heard the men had celebrated their crime, holding a party at Thorn's property in which Mr Lyons' own wife and children attended. 

'It looked like they were celebrating,' Ms MacFarlane told the jury.

'Jana was drinking, but I thought - it was a bottle of whiskey or something and they were (cheering), like - yep.'

Hooper was jailed last year for seven-and-a-half years and will be eligible for parole after serving just four-and-a-half. 

Smith, 26, and Bottom, 25, were found not guilty of Mr Lyons' murder, but the pair were found guilty of his assault and false imprisonment