William Chaplin's mother says those behind Gerogery murder must pay

William Chaplin was murdered and his body burnt in a bonfire at the rear of a Main Street property in 2010.

A man who was just 16 at the time of the slaying was recorded by Albury investigators on phone taps talking about his involvement in the killing.

The former Billabong High School student, who is now an adult, faced the Albury Supreme Court on Friday for sentencing submissions after being found guilty of murder by a jury.

Prosecutor Paul Kerr read a victim impact statement from the late man's mother, Marlene Carter.

Despite being killed in 2010, Mr Chaplin wasn't reported missing until 2019.

Ms Carter said her son hadn't been responding to Facebook posts and thought he might have been in jail, and hoped he would be in contact.

"I always felt I should have pushed more to find out where he had gone," she said.

"When the police contacted me, I nearly fell off my chair.

"I still can't believe what has happened to William.

"I could not sleep after knowing what happened to the body.

"Why did they do it?"

She said she had been left "so angry" and thought "whoever did this to my son deserves to pay".

Ms Carter said when she last spoke to her son, he was going to visit his father.

She had lost William's brother in a car crash a year earlier.

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The killer, who sat in Albury court in prison greens while flanked by two custody officers, stared ahead and did not react while the mother's statement was read.

The prosecution argued that an older man was the main culprit in the killing, and had wrongly claimed Mr Chaplin was involved in a sex offence, and killed Mr Chaplin to cover up his own sexual offending.

Mr Kerr said the younger man had tried to manipulate police in his interview and "was able to turn on the tears" during one false version of events.

The younger man's lawyer, David Dalton, argued his client had played a much lesser role, was manipulated, and there was little to no planning.

He said the 16-year-old had been manipulated by the 39-year-old man.

The teenager gave multiple versions of how the killing had occurred, and the court heard the exact method could not be determined.

He was recorded telling his mother he'd cut Mr Chaplin's throat.

The man, who has been in custody since his 2019 arrest, will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.

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