A Victorian man found guilty of the "brutal" murder of his ex-girlfriend's 11-month-old son has been sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Jason Noy, 28, will spend a minimum 26 years in jail for killing Harro Dean at their Paynesville home, in the state's east, on July 5, 2016.
In the Supreme Court at Morwell, Judge Paul Coghlan described the case as "the brutal killing of a baby, for no apparent reason".
He said Noy's "prior convictions show [he] had used violence in a domestic setting".
Psychiatrist assessment
Noy's father had abused him as a child and Justice Coghlan said he "grew up in an atmosphere of violence and fear".
He was diagnosed as bipolar in 2013, and the psychiatrist who assessed Noy in prison found there was a relationship between his personality disorder and his offending.
The court heard Noy told the psychiatrist that while he denied any responsibility for Harro's death, if he did commit the crime he could not live with the knowledge.
In sentencing Noy to a minimum of 26 years in jail, Justice Coghlan told Noy he "cannot accept the enormity of what you have done".
In April a jury found that Noy had broken the boy's spine, causing massive internal bleeding that led to his death "within minutes".
The prosecutor, Andrew Grant, had previously told the court Noy does not deserve a life sentence because the crime was not premeditated.
Noy's defence lawyer David Gibson told the court that while he still took no responsibility for Harro's death and had not expressed any remorse, he was "haunted by it".
Noy has spent 748 days in custody since his arrest, all of which has been spent in protective custody.
'It's unforgivable'
In her victim impact statement, Harro's paternal great-grandmother Betty Bennett said she felt "unbelievably angry that someone could do this".
"I feel sick when I think about it, and I think about it all the time," she said.
Mrs Bennett said she was no longer able to go to certain places because they reminded her too much of Harro.
"What happened to Harro destroyed our family," she said.
"It breaks my heart to think how he suffered."
Outside court after sentencing, Mrs Bennett said "he deserved everything he got, he was my grandson".
"[I'm] very happy with the sentence."
