Cessnock tip murder: Adam Bidner jailed for running down and killing Shane Mears

Adam Andrew Bidner, 33, of Aberdare, used his Toyota Landcruiser to run down and drive over father-of-six Shane Mears while the pair were scavenging for scrap metal at the tip on the afternoon of July 5, 2020.

Bidner then fled, leaving Mr Mears for dead and began formulating a plan to avoid being implicated in the cowardly and gruesome attack.

He cleaned his car, changed the tyres and even offered his sympathy to Mr Mears' daughter for the loss of her father.

That desperate endeavour to avoid responsibility lasted nearly three years, until March when Bidner pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Mears on what would have been the second day of his trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.

On Thursday afternoon, Justice Helen Wilson jailed Bidner for a maximum of 24 years and eight months, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Justice Wilson said Bidner must have intended to kill Mr Mears when he reversed over him and found he was not provoked into the attack or truly remorseful for taking the 54-year-old's life.

"This is a very serious crime where a defenceless man going about his ordinary life was deliberately driven down by the offender using a large motor vehicle, severely injured and left to die in the dust," Justice Wilson said. "It was a cowardly act."

The sentence means Bidner will not be eligible for parole until March, 2040, at the age of 50.

Justice Wilson had last week heard from members of Mr Mears' family, who said the 54-year-old was a "protector", a proud father and a loving grandfather and they would forever be "tormented" by how tragically he was taken from them.

"Your parents teach you everything throughout life, but not how to live without them," Shayna Mears said. "My life has been turned upside down since his death and I am missing half of who I am."

Justice Wilson said the terrible news was "overwhelming" for Mr Mears' family and their grief was long-lasting.

"The way Mr Mears died haunts his family who cannot but picture in their minds his last moments," Justice Wilson said.

Bidner and Mr Mears had been involved in an ongoing feud for more than a year when Mr Mears was run down from behind while scavenging for scrap metal in the Cessnock Waste Management Centre on the afternoon of July 5, 2020.

The feud and "ongoing animosity" between Bidner and Mr Mears stemmed from an altercation between Bidner and one of Mr Mears' friends in April, 2019, during which Bidner struck Mr Mears' friend six times with a pick axe handle.

The altercation was filmed and the video circulated around Cessnock before Mr Mears saw it and became furious with Bidner.

After Mr Mears had offered to fight Bidner a number of times over the next 12 months, the feud came to a head inside the Cessnock tip.

Using bushtracks and holes in the fence, Bidner, Mr Mears and four others had snuck into the tip after hours on the afternoon of July 5, 2020, to scavenge for scrap metal.

No one saw what happened, but at some point Bidner deliberately reversed his Landcruiser at Mr Mears, striking him from behind, knocking him to the ground and then driving up and over his body until one tyre was resting on his shoulder and neck.

Justice Wilson found the pair both being there on that afternoon was entirely coincidental and Bidner had decided to "spontaneously and opportunistically" run over Mr Mears before the pair had even spoken a word to each other.

Justice Wilson found there was no evidence Mr Mears even knew Bidner was at the tip before he was reversed over and had not provoked the attack, finding the history of animosity provided a background to the attack but did not mitigate it.

Mr Mears's friend found him lying face down in the dirt with a tyre track across his back at 5.03pm and called for help.

Meanwhile, Bidner was speeding away and putting in place a plan to avoid being implicated in Mr Mears' death.

And the court heard last week that even after pleading guilty, Bidner has had difficulty showing he is truly remorseful for running down and killing Mr Mears.

During his sentence hearing, Crown prosecutor Brian Costello read aloud a letter Bidner wrote to the court in relation to Mr Mears' murder and noted the expressions of remorse were "verbatim" to another letter he wrote as part of his sentence proceedings for the axe handle attack.

"It must have been a transcription of that first letter and calls into question the genuineness of the remorse," Mr Costello said. "He has essentially recycled the remorse and the Crown position is that you would reject his expressions of remorse."

Justice Wilson said she could not conclude that Bidner was remorseful.

"I'm sure that the offender does regret his conduct, but probably his regret is principle for the consequences to himself and his family rather than because of true remorse for murdering Shane Mears," Justice Wilson said.

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