Kickboxer sentenced over young dad’s death was ‘tortured’ in Thai jail: court

A kickboxer involved in the murder of a young father of two in Sydney over an unpaid debt was tortured in a Thailand jail after his arrest over another man’s death, a court has been told.

Antonio Bagnato, 35, appeared before Sydney’s Supreme Court on Friday morning for sentencing on a single charge of murder over the death of Bradley Dillon, 25, on August 11, 2014.

Mr Dillon was stabbed four times in the back and shot in the back, abdomen and foot as he tried to flee from the Leichhardt Marketplace after a meeting over money owed to someone else.

In sentencing, Justice Richard Cavanagh said Bagnato entered a joint criminal enterprise with another man to inflict grievous bodily harm on Dillon, but it was not known who had killed him.

Bagnato will be eligible for parole from 2033 after he was sentenced to 17 years and three months in prison, with Justice Cavanagh noting the 13 months Bagnato had spent in prison in Thailand.

The court was told Bagnato had fled to Bangkok ostensibly to pursue a career in Muay Thai following Mr Dillon’s death but was later arrested in Cambodia in 2015 over another man’s death.

In his statement to the court, Bagnato said he was tortured and forced to reside in a cell with 150 inmates “squashed like sardines”, with maggot and fly-infested food while in the Thai jail.

He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death after more than a year in prison but was later released on an appeal before he was again arrested by Thai police over firearm offences.

It was then that police in Australia made their second attempt to have Bagnato extradited, which Justice Cavangh accepted prolonged Bagnato’s imprisonment in Thailand by about 13 months.

The kickboxer was eventually extradited to Australia in 2022 to face court over Mr Dillon’s death and told the court his time in Thai prison had left him suffering post-traumatic stress.

Mr Dillon’s family and supporters of Bagnato packed into the courtroom on Friday, the final official day of court sittings for 2024 and more than a decade after the young dad was killed.

The court was told the Balmain cafe owner’s killing came after an escalating “conflict which he (Mr Dillon) did not start but which led to his death” over money owed to someone else.

An amount of $1500 was loaned to a third party to attend rehab, the court was told, with an additional $1000 sought over money allegedly stolen from a purse sometime prior to that.

In August, an envelope was provided with a label stating $2500, though only $50 was contained inside. What followed was a series of escalating threats before Mr Dillon became involved.

The court was told Mr Dillon told a member of the St Michael’s Fight Club, of which Bagnato and the co-offender were members, that “he wants to make threats with toys. I can play with toys too.”

Prior to the killing, Bagnato and the co-accused contacted Mr Dillon on a burner phone before the three men met at the west Sydney shopping centre underground carpark about 5.30pm.

A witness reported to police hearing a man “mumbling in a feeble, timid, and scared manner”, with another witness stating that they saw two men flee the carpark at 5.36pm.

Mr Dillon was captured on CCTV leaving the carpark about one minute later before collapsing on a grass hill before emergency services arrived. Tragically, he was declared dead at the scene.

Police reported finding bloodstains in the carpark as well as five 9mm Lugar shell casings and “ricochet marks” scattered throughout the busy shopping centre carpark.

A post-mortem examination determined Mr Dillon had suffered two bullet wounds to the back, a third bullet wound to his left foot, and stab wounds of varying depth to his back.

In sentencing, Justice Cavanagh said he did not agree the use of the burner phone, first activated about a month prior, showed a high degree of planning before Mr Dillon’s murder.

He told the court that Bagnato admitted it was only the three men – including the co-accused – in the carpark at the time but did not concede that he had “shot and stabbed the deceased (Mr Dillon)”.

“Why the deceased should be subject to such punishment given his earlier conduct is difficult to understand in any rational way,” Justice Cavanagh said in his hour-long judgment.

Justice Cavanagh accepted Bagnato had “good prospects for rehabilitation” and made an allowance for the 13 months he spent in Thai prison after the intervention of Australian police.

Bagnato has already spent nine years in custody.

Co-accused Diego Carbone, who was 23 years old at the time of the killing, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail in 2022 after being found guilty of murder following a second trial.