Peter William Leary pleaded guilty to killing Port Sorell’s Neil Harwood in December by striking his head and neck up to 20 times with a hammer in a unit in East Devonport.
The resident of the unit alerted police to the crime when she found blood splatter in the lounge and kitchen on December 28, 2011.
Police found Harwood’s remains in a pigpen on a farm in Beulah the next day. Leary was brought into custody and has remained there since December 29, 2011.
Justice Helen Wood sentenced Leary to 20 years in prison.
She said his efforts to dispose of the body had compounded the horror the Harwood family felt about the brutality of the 54-year-old’s death.
He will not be eligible for parole until 2023.
