Paul Darcy Armstrong jailed 11 years for killing Felipe Flores

ALMOST two decades after he picked up Felipe Flores in a Sydney gay bar, the man who brutally bashed him to death has been jailed for at least 11-and-a-half years.
Paul Darcy Armstrong, 47, was sentenced today in the NSW Supreme Court after a jury found him guilty of the murder in April.
Mr Flores, 27, was picked up by Armstrong at an Oxford Street bar on September 2, 1991, Justice Terrence Buddin said during sentencing.
Just half-an-hour after Mr Flores' friends saw him leaving the bar with a "tall Australian man", his body was discovered by a security guard in a deserted area at Woolloomooloo, known as lovers' lane.
"The deceased had been brutally beaten to death," Justice Buddin said.
Mr Flores was found to have sustained multiple injuries including a broken nose, broken ribs, cuts and bruises and injuries to his genitals.
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"It is also clear that his face had been stomped on," Justice Buddin added.
His liver was almost split in two and his face bore the impression of a shoe sole.
"The victim was subjected to a savage and sustained beating," Justice Buddin said.
"Mercifully it appears Mr Flores died almost immediately following the attack."
Mr Flores was HIV-positive and Justice Buddin said sharing that news with Armstrong may have sparked the bashing, after the pair went to Woolloomooloo for "a sexual encounter".
Armstrong, who stands more than 200cm tall, was arrested in 2008 at his Launceston home after DNA matched him to matter found beneath Mr Flores' fingernails and bodily fluids on the victim's shirt.
When shown a photo of Mr Flores, Armstrong denied knowing him or having met him.
However, the father of two did tell police that in 1991 he was living a promiscuous homosexual life in Sydney, often picking up men around the Oxford Street area.
Armstrong, who Justice Buddin said was diagnosed with HIV in February 1999, was sentenced to a full term of 17 years prison, but will be eligible for parole in May 2020 after 11 years and six months.
Mr Flores' sister Ines Flores had previously read an emotional victim impact statement to the court in which she described her brother, who came from Ecuador but lived in Sydney, as "a loyal, generous and caring" man.