The niece of an Adelaide shooting victim has told a court she often wonders if his death more than 20 years ago was related to his sexuality.
Paul Beveridge Maroroa, 45, was last year found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of the manslaughter of Robert Sabeckis, at the Maslin Beach carpark in Adelaide's south in January 2000.
The victim's niece, Vilija Sabeckis, today read a statement to the court about the crime's impact on her family and the broader Lithuanian community.
"I used to have vivid and strange nightmares involving members of my family being taken away or being shot right in front of me," she said.
"It was hard to know if his death was targeted or random, and I didn't know which was worse."
Ms Sabeckis said Maroroa had not provided an adequate explanation for what happened on the night her uncle was shot.
"I was often asked if it was because he was gay, and if it was a hate crime, and I never knew how to answer that, even though it was something I often thought about," she said.
"His sexual preference should have no bearing in his circumstance of being killed by another.
"[Maroroa] put forward a version of events that protected himself from the full extent of what he had done.
"The accused continues to cause pain and suffering for my family … I hope this haunts the accused for the rest of his life."
Maroroa urges court to find he acted 'in self-defence'
Maroroa's lawyer Heath Barklay SC said his client should be sentenced on the basis he was acting in self-defence, but "excessively".
"He was acting disproportionately to the threat he faced," he said.
The New Zealand man eluded prosecution for 18 years until a DNA match following his arrest on another matter in 2018.
He was tried for murder but convicted for the lesser charge of manslaughter last November.
A one-page written apology to the family and community was handed to the court.
It heard Maroroa moved to New Zealand shortly after the shooting, and lived a reclusive life with a "terrible secret", affecting his work and personal life.
But Justice Sam Doyle questioned whether that meant Maroroa had ever "faced up" to what happened.
Prosecutor Sandi McDonald SC said the circumstances suggested it was not a "frenzied attack" in self-defence.
She said Maroroa had re-loaded his gun twice, and afterwards, pulled down the victim's underpants.
"Regret is not remorse," she said.
Maroroa will be sentenced later this month.
