A heartbroken father has told a judge of constantly imagining the terror felt by his young son when he was tortured, beaten and stabbed to death.
"I am afraid there will not be anything left of me for his mother and for my daughters," he said in his victim impact statement read out in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
Yigit Can Erdogan, known as John, faced a sentence hearing after a jury in May found the 22-year-old guilty of murdering the 17-year-old in March 2019.
Two others have been sentenced over the crime, which Erdogan was accused of orchestrating after a dispute over claimed stolen property.
The teenager, who was detained for hours, was beaten, stabbed and had his head stomped on.
His body was found in a shallow grave in the Blue Mountains, wrapped in plastic and tape, eight days after he was last seen by his family.
He was naked bar his underwear, with 25 stab wounds to his neck, a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain.
A witness told the jury he saw the teen sitting in the hallway of house, stripped down to his underwear, looking distressed.
He said Erdogan later told him: "This kid is so injured that if we take him to a hospital he is going to snitch. We need to kill him".
The victim's father said his mind kept going through the details of his youngest child and only son being not only brutally murdered over a trivial matter but also tortured for hours and hours.
"It's been a loss of faith for the whole family.
"I can't fathom how anyone could behave in that way, not just to my son but to anyone."
He felt deep agony, sadness and anger, and relentlessly asked questions of how, why and what happened, while breaking down in a heap crying.
Like a broken record, he kept seeing flashes over and over again of images of his son being tortured.
"Just a few days before his death, he bought me a beautiful shirt and said 'I love you'."
He had been a good helpful son with the most infectious laugh and a big smile and had never hurt a fly.
He felt he had failed as a father in not being able to protect his son, and struggled every day.
"I am no longer a good role model for what is left of my family."
The family never sat at the dinner table anymore as one seat was empty and no longer could they talk there about their days, whether interesting or mundane.
In her victim impact statement, one of the teen's sisters described him a very caring and adored brother.
The "malicious" murder had caused unbearable pain, shock and sadness.
Another sister wrote a poem from his perspective which included: "Why are you hitting me, I thought we were friends" and "I pray, I wish for someone to come".
The poem continued "I haven't said goodbye" referred to a "fight I am to lose" and to the pain in his family's hearts.
Justice Mark Ierace , who acknowledged the very moving family statements, said he will sentence Erdogan before the end of the year.
