Delusional man who murdered 'the wrong person' sentenced to 33 years in jail

A man who killed his housemate after mistaking him for his abusive older brother has been sentenced to 33 years in jail.

Daniel Hounslow, 42, pleaded guilty to murdering Micah Kawalek in Melbourne's south-west in March last year.

The men were sharing crisis accommodation in Wyndham Vale when Hounslow kicked and punched Mr Kawalek to death in the backyard.

Hounslow had taken drugs and had consumed alcohol in the hours before the attack, when he subjected Mr Kawalek to as many as 40 blows.

During sentencing, Justice Andrew Tinney said Mr Kawalek was "bashed mercilessly and brutally" and died of multiple blunt force blows, mostly to the head.

"He must have suffered greatly."

Hounslow had called 000, telling the operator; "I punched him and punched him and punched him and I couldn't stop", the court heard.

Hounslow's lawyers claimed he was delusional at the time, thinking he was attacking his brother who he claimed had sexually abused him as a child.

Hounslow falsely accused Mr Kawalek of sexually molesting him.

"You were out for revenge … but for the wrong person," Justice Tinney said to Hounslow, who was seated quietly in the dock.

Hounslow sentenced as serious offender

"It was a fit of rage driven by delusional beliefs."

During a plea hearing earlier this month, Mr Kawalek's family confronted Hounslow for taking advantage of "a good man at the lowest point of his life."

"What you did was just demonic," Julie Kawalek, the dead man's wife, told that hearing.

While Ms Kawalek was living apart from her husband at the time of his death, she still had hopes they would reconcile, the court heard.

"In one night you changed my life forever," Ms Kawalek said to Hounslow.

Hounslow had been convicted of multiple rapes in the past.

In one attack, he targeted a 55-year-old woman in her home, turning off her water, power and telephone service before raping her over a four-and-a-half-hour period in what Justice Tinney described as a "saga of degrading sexual abuse."

Earlier this month during a plea hearing, the court heard Mr Kawalek's life had spiralled out of control after the death of his brother.

Justice Tinney has sentenced him as a serious offender and imposed a non-parole period of 26 years.