FATHER SENT HIS SON ON A REVENGE MISSION GET KILLED, FATHER JAIL

Anthony Armstrong died in 2011 after being recruited by his father, Alan Armstrong, to attack his rival

A Melbourne father who recruited his son to bash a rival will be forever haunted after the 24-year-old died doing what his dad asked, a judge has said.

Alan Armstrong, 63, was sentenced to a 12 month jail term, wholly suspended for 12 months on Monday for inciting his son, Anthony Armstrong, to intentionally commit serious injury.

'Alan Armstrong did something that will haunt him for the rest of his life,' Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher said.

'Anthony Armstrong died doing as his father asked.'

Anthony led a trio of thugs who burst into the backyard of Stephen Delmo's Somerville home, beating him with a baseball bat and brandishing a shotgun.

Charged with the task by his father, Anthony called for the gun as Mr Delmo lay beaten on the ground.

But as he collected the firearm it discharged twice, hitting him in the chest.

Justice Croucher said the 24-year-old was directing the attack and was the ultimate architect of his own sad demise.

'He called for the gun, a gun he must've known was loaded, while in the throes of belting Mr Delmo with a baseball bat in the dark,' he said on Monday.

'Anthony Armstrong was complicit in the behaviour that caused his own death.'

Alan Armstrong, from the suburb of Hastings, had recruited his fresh-out-of-prison son to settle a score with Mr Delmo.

Accomplices in the attack, Tyson John Haver and Michael Scott Wald, raced Anthony Armstrong to the Frankston hospital after the December 2011 incident where they dumped his body before screaming for help and fleeing.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher said: 'Anthony Armstrong was complicit in the behaviour that caused his own death'

Haver, 31, and Wald, 29, were both convicted of manslaughter and recklessly causing serious injury to Mr Delmo.

Haver, of Carrum Downs, was jailed for eight years and six months with a minimum five years and six months.

Wald was jailed for nine years with a minimum six years.

Haver's partner, 31-year-old Adalia Ottobre of Carrum Downs, was sentenced to eight-months imprisonment, wholly suspended, for being an accessory after the fact to recklessly causing serious injury.

Family and friends of Armstrong yelled abuse after the sentencing with one man saying 'nine years for murder, not good enough' and a woman telling reporters 'no one has the right to take someone else's life and get nine years for it'.