Joshua Pope and Gregory Pryor were sentenced to life in the murder of Gregory Harding.

Life with a 20-year minimum is the sentence on the murder verdicts ABC News reported. The one-to-four-year terms are on guilty pleas to other charges, and ABC News reported they run at the same time as the life sentences, so they do not add to the 20 years. Parole eligibility in 20 years is not a release date.

ABC News reported Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in a story posted at 4:15 p.m., that Joshua Marcus Pope, 35, and Gregory Tremayne Pryor, 30, were found guilty of the murder of Gregory Harding, 64, and sentenced to life in prison. The story, by Grace Whiteside and Nikki Sorbello, reported they will not be eligible for parole for at least 20 years. ABC News reported the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard this week that Harding, owner and caretaker of the Craignish Country Club near Hervey Bay, was targeted at his home by two men who planned to steal money from his safe. It reported a golfer found his body in August 2021, with the television on and a frypan on the floor. It reported the attack was on Aug. 15, 2021, and that Pope and Pryor were arrested the following day.

ABC News reported the court heard Pope caused Harding's death by firing a shotgun loaded with buckshot at close range, and that the pellets hit Harding's leg, breaking a bone and severing an artery. Justice Michael Copley said Pope knew how dangerous the shotgun was because he had tried to get a different firearm. ABC News reported the judge said, "You did not want to use the weapon that you had because it would blow a person's legs clean off." The judge said he was satisfied Pryor knew Pope had the weapon. ABC News reported Copley told the men they were "far more concerned with covering your tracks" than with helping Harding, and that he said, "You could have, but did not, summon an ambulance." ABC News reported he said, "It may be that you are [remorseful] now … but really you were not remorseful in any meaningful way after you shot the deceased." The brackets around remorseful are in the ABC text. ABC News reported Copley said Pope had investigated Harding's living and business arrangements ahead of the attack.

ABC News reported the court heard Harding's death had "left a great void" for his family, and that Copley said their grief would be sharpened by "the lonely circumstances in which he came to die, bleeding away in his house, unable to summon an ambulance for himself." On Thursday the family said, in a statement ABC News published, "To the police officers, detectives, field experts, support services and legal teams who played a part in bringing Greg the justice he deserves, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt thanks." ABC News reported the pair had also been involved in a ram raid on a Hervey Bay jewellery store earlier on Aug. 15, using a car stolen from the Sunshine Coast. It reported they had pleaded guilty to other charges, including break and enter and unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and that sentences on those charges ranged from four years to one year, to be served concurrently with the murder sentence.

The guilty verdicts ABC News reported are the murder convictions. The life terms, with at least 20 years before parole, are the sentences on those verdicts. The guilty pleas are separate convictions, and the shorter terms run at the same time as the life sentences. Pope is the man the court heard fired the shotgun. Pryor's place in the account ABC News reported is that the judge was satisfied he knew Pope was armed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.