An Australian "toy boy'' killer who drunkenly beat his New Zealand ex-girlfriend to death has been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison.
Former Hawkes Bay woman Debara Martin, 43, was found dead at a house in northern New South Wales on May 4 last year.
The chef and mother-of-two had moved to Australia, where she worked as a kitchen hand and was recovering from breast cancer, two years before her death.
A friend last year described her killer, Adam John Kennedy, 26, as her "toy boy'' and said they had recently split before her death.
Kennedy, who pleaded guilty to murder, was sentenced in the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday to 23 years and four months in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years and four months, AAP reported.