It was too little, too late, for Colleen "Debbie" Ayers' parents when the man who killed her during a drug and sex-fuelled party stood up in court and apologised.
"I should have run for help or called the police but I didn't.
"Maybe it was because I was a coward or I was scared," Micheal Duffy told them after he was sentenced on Friday.
Outside court, Ms Ayers' father Bryon "Pat" Green, and stepmother Judith Green said it meant little.
"Debbie was a free spirited young woman who met evil and never realised it," Mrs Green told reporters.
"They (her killers) are still alive and will be released one day. Debbie will never be released from the horror of her death."
Duffy, 34, was sentenced to at least eight years for the manslaughter of Ms Ayers who he later buried under five centimetres of soil at the Greens' Picton property in Sydney's southwest in May 2012.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing offences after the property was raided following Ms Ayers' death.
He is the last of three co-offenders to be sentenced, with his former lover Rachael Evans convicted of the murder and another man, Scott Derbridge, jailed for being an accessory.
Exactly who did what to Ms Ayers was the subject of conflicting evidence.
What is certain, though, is that after Ms Ayers met Evans on May 8, 2012, the women and Duffy took drugs together and made a sex tape of their threesome.
Then on May 9 - with Mr and Mrs Green away on holidays - Ms Ayers invited them, a 16-year-old girl and Derbridge to their Picton property.
As the drug taking and drinking continued, Duffy and Ms Ayers went to bed together.
Shortly after, Evans and the teen burst in, with the 16-year-old hitting Ms Ayers with a bottle while Evans put a belt around her neck.
Although Justice David Davies could not find that Duffy grabbed onto the belt, he concluded the 34-year-old held Ms Ayers down while Evans continued the attack.
Evans later put Ms Ayers' body in the bath and tried to clean Duffy's DNA from it.
Why Duffy helped Evans was difficult to understand, Justice Davies told the Supreme Court.
"It is clear, however, that he and Rachael had been in a sexual relationship right up to this time. She was a dominant personality and it may be that he was trying to please her."
He rejected Duffy's version that he just stood there in shock and watched the women kill Ms Ayers without protest as it was "too incredible to believe".
Evans, the court has previously heard, had "countless sexual partners", and had been diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, substance-abuse disorder and sadomasochism.
Justice Davies found Duffy had little prospect of rehabilitation and had also shown a callous disregard for Ms Ayers and what he had done.
He sentenced him to two years for the stealing offence and a minimum of eight and a maximum of 12 for manslaughter, with the terms partially accumulated.
He will be eligible for parole in 2021.
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