Three prisoners who bashed another inmate to death in a central Queensland jail and then tried to make it look like a suicide have been sentenced to life behind bars.
Mark Dempsey Knight, Wesley Robert Williams and Wayne Thomas Robertson were sentenced in the Supreme Court in Brisbane today.
A jury found them guilty of the murder of Robert James Buckley, 23, at the Etna Creek Correctional Centre, near Rockhampton, in June 1999.
The trio had earlier been convicted of the matter in 2009 but successfully appealed in 2010, citing several technical areas of law that were overlooked in the original trial.
During the latest trial, the court heard the trio murdered Buckley for refusing to tell them where he had hidden a stash of gold he allegedly stole from his father-in-law.
Knight, Williams and Robertson then bashed Buckley to death in a shower block and hung his body from a window by a towel.
The death was originally considered a suicide but in 2006 the three men were charged with murder.
Acting Justice Kerry O'Brien on Monday sentenced all three to life imprisonment.
He ordered Knight, who had a prior murder conviction, spend at least 20 years behind bars before being eligible for parole unless there were "exceptional circumstances" warranting an earlier release.
