Former Terang man jailed 18 years for murder

Feb. 11, 2015, 1:22 p.m.

THE former Terang man who murdered well-known Daylesford interior designer Stuart Rattle has been jailed for 18 years.

Former Terang man Michael O'Neill (left) has been jailed 18 years for murdering Stuart Rattle (right).

THE former Terang man who murdered well-known Daylesford interior designer Stuart Rattle has been jailed for 18 years.

Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said on Wednesday that Michael O'Neill, known as 'The Talented Mr Ripley' because of the way he constantly lied, had been in a "fragile psychological state" when he killed his partner of 16 years.

Justice Hollingworth accepted O'Neill, who stood in the dock with his head bowed as he was being sentenced, had murdered Mr Rattle in the heat of the moment without any forethought after an argument.

In sentencing O'Neill to 18 years' jail with a non-parole period of 13 years, the judge said Mr Rattle had often called him lazy, a parasite and threatened to send him back to where he came from.

Justice Hollingworth said Mr Rattle treated O'Neill as an office boy and not his partner but his behaviour in no way justified his murder.

"I accept you are genuinely remorseful for what you have done. There is plenty if evidence that you are devastated," the judge told O'Neill.

O'Neill, 48, who suffers from a dependent personality disorder, hit Mr Rattle over the head with a saucepan at the couple's South Yarra apartment at 6am on December 4, 2013, before strangling him with a dog lead as he begged for his life.

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Former Terang man jailed 18 years for murder