Bradley Robert Hoye was her middle child, who she said had a dream of becoming a property owner and running his own farm in the Narrabri area.

Ashley Smith, the man charged with the manslaughter of Mr Hoye, was sentenced to six years, nine months’ imprisonment on Friday.

Ms Hoye said, as a mother, she believed the sentence was not long enough.

“I’m totally shocked,” she said. “I just wanted to run away. Even if it (the sentence) was 100 years, it still wouldn’t be enough.

“I thought the judge would have looked at the extent of Bradley’s injuries a bit more. I saw the photos from the coroner and he was unrecognisable.”

Ms Hoye said Bradley, who had moved to Inverell after working in the Narrabri area, was a passionate, practising Catholic and always carried a bible with him. After growing up in Brisbane, he had moved to take up contract seasonal work at properties around Narrabri in November 2007.

Ms Hoye said she had last spoken to her son on April 28, 2008, at Bradley’s uncle’s wedding.

“I had been planning on going to visit Brad for the weekend but he had told me they expected their work at Clyde Station to run out and they might move to work in the Colly area,” she said. “He said it was probably best to wait to visit until he knew he would be working and what he would be doing.”

Mr Hoye was wearing a balaclava, was armed with two knives, had a blood alcohol reading of .195 and had traces of amphetamine and methyl-amphetamine in his blood when Smith beat him to death with a tree branch on Saturday, June 28, 2008.

The 32-year-old victim had been chasing a group of young men through the streets of Narrabri, after mistaking them for a group with whom he had had an earlier altercation.

He shouted after one of them: “I’m going to get you, I’m going to cut you up”, the NSW Supreme Court was told.

When one of the group grabbed a tree branch and threatened to hit Mr Hoye with it if he did not drop his knives, he called for a truce and started to back away, the NSW Supreme Court was told.