Relentless tsunamis of grief continue to overwhelm the family of a man who was ambushed and murdered by ‘cowards’ seven years ago, they told a NSW court.

Diego Carbone was found guilty of murder in December in a second trial, after his first conviction was overturned on appeal.

The judge-alone trial heard Carbone and an accomplice luring Bradley Dillon, 25, to an underground car park in Leichhardt in August 2014, where he was repeatedly stabbed from behind and shot three times as he fled .

The court had previously heard that Mr Dillon was seeking repayment of money his sister had lent to an ex-boyfriend who was a member of the Saint Michael Fight Club.

Carbone and his accomplice and cousin Antonio Bagnato were current or former members of the boxing and martial arts club, and both had known Mr. Dillon from school.

Bagnato had been Mr Dillon’s friend, the court was told during the trial.

Bagnato fled the country shortly after the murder and Carbone twice tried to follow him abroad but was arrested by police at Sydney International Airport a few weeks later.

Addressing court on Friday via video link ahead of Carbone’s sentencing, Mr Dillon’s high school sweetheart and partner of 11 years, Nadine, said his death left her “a dead, breathing woman”.

His attackers were ‘thornless cowards’, Mr Dillon’s sobbing mother said, noting that all of her son’s injuries came from behind.

After comforting the distressed woman, one of her sisters, Kellie Dillon, told the court that her family had endured seven years of relentless waves of grief.

“When I first learned of Bradley’s death that day, it felt like the waves were 100 feet high and were crashing down on us without mercy…all we could do was to cling to us.

“(Even now) the waves keep crashing…on Bradley’s birthday, on Father’s Day, on Christmas lunch, on milestones in the lives of his young children.

“Everything is a constant reminder that he’s gone and things will never be the same.

“The waves will keep coming forever.”

Carbone will be sentenced at a later date, with Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling now set to consider the significance of the role Carbone played in planning and carrying out the murder.

“The Crown’s case…is that the murder of Bradley Dillon was a savage and unprovoked murder, following a carefully planned and premeditated ambush of an unarmed man in circumstances where Mr Dillon had no opportunity to defend themselves,” prosecutor Michelle England said.

However, Carbone’s lawyer argued that the decision to confront Mr. Dillon had been made shortly before the attack and that Carbone had no idea the man would eventually die.

Australian Associated Press