Australian man shoots daughter’s fiance dead in execution-style slaying

An Australian army veteran vowed to kill his daughter’s fiance days before he “lured” the man into his home and killed him in cold blood.

Irishman Damien Conlon, 38, was due to marry Linda Simon when he was killed by her father, Luke Samouel Simon, in February 2023, news.com.au reports.

Simon, 60, appeared before the New South Wales Supreme Court this week, before his sentencing in April.

The court heard Simon threatened Conlon’s life days before he killed him inside his home in the rural town of Oberon.

He reportedly told the younger man to “get on your knees” and “confess” before saying “bye-bye Damien” as he pulled the trigger.

Damien Conlon and Linda Simon. Simon's father killed Conlon in cold blood. Photo / GoFundMe

The court saw CCTV footage that showed Simon visiting his gun safe several times on the day before the murder, to which he has pleaded guilty.

Linda Simon told the court her father’s actions were “senseless and violent”, saying he could not face her fiance “like a man and have a conversation with him like a human being”.

“Luke, I believe you are a coward,” she wrote in a victim impact statement.

“You only had one intention in mind when you lured him into your home and that was that Damien would not be alive after he entered your house.”

She implored the judge to hand down a stiff sentence so that the family would not have to “live in fear of Luke walking the streets”.

The couple had two children together and Conlon was a stepfather to two boys from Linda Simon’s previous relationship.

Linda told the Irish Mirror the pair were due to be married at the end of 2023.

“We had deposits paid on the venue, the church and everything, but unfortunately that will never be,” she said.

“That is the hardest part, all the plans we had for the future and watching our children grow up without him. We just take it day by day now, that is all we can do.”

Conlon’s injuries were so severe that his family were robbed of the chance to have an open-casket funeral, but Linda Simon said there were still “memories of happiness and joy when we remember the good times”.

She said one of her sons still walked around the house looking for him.

“Then it just hits you that that’s all gone now.”