Terrence Tiumalu: Victorian man who killed Brendon Farrell has jail term increased over ‘appalling callousness’

A killer who wrapped a man’s body in a carpet and left it in a canoe will spend another two years behind bars after prosecutors successfully appealed his sentence.

Terrence Tiumalu was in 2023 jailed for seven years and six months for killing Brendon Farrell.

But on Thursday the Court of Appeal found he had treated his victim with “appalling callousness” as three judges added an extra two years onto his prison term.

Tiumalu in May 2021 was asked by his friend, Richard Jackson, to help evict Mr Farrell from a bungalow.

Tiumalu went to Mr Farrell’s home where he mounted a spontaneous assault, slapping Mr Farrell in the face before grabbing him by the scruff of the shirt and punching him twice to the head, causing him to bleed.

Tiumalu told Mr Jackson he had done some “re-decorating” inside the house, as there was blood everywhere, before carrying Mr Farrell to his car and driving away.

Mr Farrell’s body was left inside Tiumalu’s car for several days.

In July that year, monitored phone calls revealed Tiumalu told another person some things he had done were on the news and if he got caught, it would be serious.

Police searched his home a day later and found blood-stained boots and a shovel.

Officers went to a property and found Mr Farrell’s decomposed remains wrapped in carpet in a white and blue canoe.

Tiumalu was arrested in July 2021 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter before he was sentenced to seven years and six months imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years.

His lawyers argued his actions were spontaneous and without premeditation, saying he was remorseful with his early guilty plea and his sentence should be moderated because of his borderline personality disorder and heavy illicit drug use.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed his sentence on the basis that it was “manifestly inadequate”.

Prosecutors said the sentencing judge had put too much weight on his mental condition and there was no evidence linking Tiumalu’s borderline personality disorder to his offending.

They also said Tiumalu’s assault was disproportionate to any actions by Mr Farrell.

Court of Appeal Justices Karin Emerton, Phillip Priest and Stephen McLeish accepted the prosecutor’s arguments, finding on Thursday that Tiumalu had treated his victim with “appalling callousness”.

They said Tiumalu was “not racked with remorse” when he wrapped up Mr Farrell’s body and put it in a canoe to decompose in a suburban backyard.

The sentencing judge was “somewhat charitable” by putting weight on Tiumalu’s borderline personality disorder and drug use in his decision, the three judges found.

Tiumalu was re-sentenced to nine years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years.