Najma Carroll’s horrifying final moments are revealed after she was abducted and brutally murdered before her body was torched in remote bush: ‘Absolutely terrifying’

A man described as a “runner” who worked for his boss and dealt drugs from a hotel in Sydney’s west has been convicted of the violent murder of a woman whose body was then set on fire.

Robert Sloan, 61, pleaded guilty to murdering Najma Carroll along with a co-accused before setting her alight in a remote part of Sandy Point in Sydney’s south-west on July 14, 2020.

The 33-year-old’s body was found by a hiker 15 days later.

“The deceased was isolated before her death, then taken to a remote woodland area where she could not escape and then murdered,” Judge Natalie Adams said on Friday.

“It must have been an incredibly terrifying experience for her.”

The New South Wales Supreme Court judge sentenced Sloan to a maximum prison term of 25 years and two months, backdated to July 3, 2047.

His 17-year, six-month parole ineligibility period expires on November 3, 2039.

Sloan received a lesser sentence than his 46-year-old boss, drug dealer Benjamin Troy Parkes, who was convicted of the murder last week.

He faces a maximum prison sentence of 31 years, of which 21 years and six months without the possibility of parole.

Judge Adams ruled that Sloan looked up to Parkes, who often ordered his subordinate to do his “dirty work” for him.

“Mr Sloan helped Mr Parkes out of a sense of misplaced loyalty to him,” she said.

The motive for the killing lay solely with Parkes. He feared that Mrs Carroll knew too much about their drug dealing, that she would not return the $8,500 she had ‘invested’ in the illegal trade and that she was afraid she would go to the police, Judge Adams ruled.

Sloan, who previously used the alias Ronald Joseph Sladden, also agreed to kill Mrs. Carroll later than Parkes.

In determining the 61-year-old’s sentence, the judge took into account his early guilty plea, his very poor upbringing and his physical health, including pain complaints after he was shot in the leg in a motel room about 25 years ago.

She noted that he had been threatened and abused in custody since his arrest for the murder in November 2020, which she said may have been due to his involvement with The Heathens in Melbourne 10 years ago.

Sloan has a decades-long criminal history and has been in trouble with the law in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia for offences including armed robbery, unlawful imprisonment, witness tampering, drug possession and motor vehicle theft.

He was a long-term drug user and was taking ‘ice’ when Ms Carroll was killed, Judge Adams said.

Sloan watched the sentencing from Silverwater Prison and shook his head, muttering “not true” as the judge considered whether he had attacked Mrs Carroll, giving her a black eye, just days before she was murdered.

The judge expressed her suspicions but could not determine with certainty that he had caused the injuries.

She discovered that Mrs Carroll was a heavy drug user at the time and that she could also have hurt herself.

Judge Adams noted that the murder had had a profound impact on mother Anne Carroll, who was given the shocking news by police that a burned body had been found in the bushes that was her daughter’s.

“On behalf of the court, I extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Najma Carroll,” she said.