''While no single piece of evidence proves, beyond reasonable doubt, the offence in question, it would defy commonsense and common experience if Mr Best were not to have dismembered the body,'' Justice Rothman said.

The torso of Ms McDougall was discovered in a Doonside reserve but her head, arms and legs have never been recovered. It was unlikely, Justice Rothman said, that they ever will be.

He said he accepted the evidence that Ms McDougall's body was dismembered with a hacksaw, that the tool was borrowed by Best and that it was later found in his van with substances matching her DNA. That evidence, and other factors, led to his finding, he said.

But Justice Rothman rejected a charge that Best had indecently interfered with her body, finding that it rested too heavily on the testimony of Best's former lover Debbra Hogden, whom he said was unreliable.

Hogden - who pleaded guilty to being an accessory to Ms McDougall's murder after the fact - said at Best's trial that she watched him choke the former drug dealer with a rope and stuck her head in a bucket of water.