Stanley Joseph Lamb, 24, and Edward George Thurston, 27, were convicted of murdering Terrence Patrick Byrne in Granny Munro Park at Coledale on October 29, 2000.

Mr Byrne, 59, a pensioner, was heading home after drinks at the Locomotive Hotel when he was approached in the park and asked for alcohol by Lamb and Thurston who had spent the day drinking a cask of moselle.

Mr Byrne shared some of his wine with them but when he went to leave he was subjected to what NSW Supreme Court Justice John Dunford described as a "frenzied and vicious assault" by the pair, who stole his cask and a packet of Drum tobacco.

Mr Byrne, slightly built but described by his family as fairly fit for his age, had his ribcage crushed and sustained 27 deep cuts in the attack during which Thurston "went crazy and kicked him about 100 times, saying 'kill him, kill him'," Justice Dunford said in sentencing the pair in the Supreme Court in Sydney yesterday.

Every rib in his body was broken, his skull was crushed and he suffered severe internal injuries, which the prosecution at the trial likened to those sustained by someone who had been run over by a truck. Lamb later called 000, telling them to send an ambulance to Granny Munro Park where a man had died.

When interviewed by police, Lamb said he was provoked by Mr Byrne who had called the pair "black c.....".

But the jury, in their trial in Tamworth in May, rejected his defence of provocation with evidence that Mr Byrne was a mild-mannered, polite and courteous man who got on well with the local Aboriginal community.

The trial lasted five and a half weeks during which time both blamed the other as being responsible for the savage attacks on Mr Byrne.

The Crown Prosecutor, Mark Macadam said, during the Tamworth trial, that the beating and murder was "a roll that went wrong".

The stepbrothers grew up on an Aboriginal mission near Tamworth, with the court told Lamb had been living on the streets since he was 14.

Lamb's address was listed at his trial as Dalby in Queensland while Thurston's address was given as Kenny Dr, Tamworth.

"Both prisoners come from a deprived Aboriginal background which is unfortunately common, particularly in the western areas of this State where deprived living conditions, low self- esteem and lack of education, lack of opportunity or motivation to obtain employment, coupled with alcohol and multiple drug abuse from an early age lead to lives with little hope of prospect, increased use of alcohol and drugs and the commission of crimes of violence," Justice Dunford said.

Lamb was jailed for 18 years, with a non-parole period of 13 years and six months. Thurston was jailed for 17 years with a minimum term of 12 years, nine months.