A BUNDABERG dad has called for the return of capital punishment after the man who murdered and dismembered his daughter's body was sentenced to life in prison.

Mick Peet's daughter, Lateesha Nolan, disappeared in Dubbo in January 2005 and her cousin, Malcolm Naden, had been wanted for her murder ever since.

Naden sparked Australia's biggest manhunt, and was captured after seven years on the run, later making full confessions to the murder of the mum-of-four and Dubbo woman Kristy Scholes.

The brutal murderer was sentenced in the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday, much to the relief of Mr Peet and other family members.

Mr Peet said Naden wanted to be sentenced for life - and his wish was granted.

"He's going to rot," he said.

"I was hoping he would get what he wanted, plus a bit more."

Mr Peet said his daughter's murderer showed no emotion or remorse in court, even smiling his way through bits of the court proceedings.

"I'd love to see the death penalty for people like him," he said.

"I don't see why (murderers) have the right to live and not their victims."

In the court hearings leading up to the 39-year-old's sentencing, Mr Peet said he was sickened to learn his daughter's body had been dismembered and her body parts scattered near the Macquarie River.

"It was very hard to concentrate knowing that," he said.

"At first I couldn't talk - my jaw wouldn't let me talk.

"I was yelling at him. I told him he was family, he was blood. She trusted him and he betrayed her."

While a life behind bars was the outcome Mr Peet was expecting, he said he still wasn't able to lay his precious little girl, who would have turned 33 on May 23, to rest.

"It's like the ending of a book, but still with a chapter missing," he said.

"There could be a part two and that would be finding Lateesha.

"What we know now, it's not entirely impossible, but knowing what he did to her body is going to make it difficult to find."