A former Dubbo businessman will spend at least the next six years in jail for the attempted murder of his de facto partner's ex-husband and ordering the killing of another man by having their tongues removed with acid.
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Robert Arthur Lambell, 52, was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with a non-parole term of
six years, during an appearance in Sydney District Court on Friday.
Mr Lambell has been in custody since February last year after being arrested at the Macquarie Inn in Dubbo following an undercover police operation.
The former operator of Burns Country Clothing in Macquarie Street pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting/encouraging/persuading to murder in November last year.
Mr Lambell wanted the victims to suffer a prolonged death after being kidnapped by the three men he ordered to carry out the killings.
Police facts presented to the Dubbo court last year revealed how Mr Lambell wanted the victims murdered: " ... they should be restrained with a barbed wire whip and cable instrument that would leave cuts in their skin ... (their) tongues should be removed with acid and they should be left to allow the flies and ants to devour the victims' flesh".
Mr Lambell was the "mastermind" behind the first attack
on victim Ken Kelly on June 19, 2002.
His motive was to obtain money and property for his de factor partner Christine Burns, who was the victim's ex-wife.
Mr Lambell was bitter towards Mr Kelly and believed he had defrauded Ms Burns over her father's and other money and property after the divorce.
In June 2002 Mr Kelly was returning to his Coonamble home when he was shot at with a .22 calibre sawn-off rifle.
He escaped and called police who were given a description of a Toyota ute in which three men were travelling.
Police stopped the ute on the Castlereagh Highway that night and three men - Stephen Franks, 60, of Dubbo and Wellington cousins William Gil Stanley and Mervyn Wayne Stanley, 31, were detained separately at the scene.
Mr Franks later hanged himself in the back of a police paddy wagon.
Charges were laid against Mr Lambell last year after he met a police undercover operative who was solicited to murder Mr Kelly and Ms Burns' brother-in-law John Stuart.
