The family of a teenager murdered by a group of men in a case of mistaken identity has told a judge how their happiness and dreams had died with him.

Family members of the victim cried and hugged each other outside court after each of the 10 defendants was sentenced to life in jail.

Girum Mekonnen died from a 25 centimetre-deep wound inflicted when his group was ambushed by men with bats, knives and machetes at a Zillmere park in Brisbane’s north on September 13, 2020.

A group of men who attacked the 19-year-old in a park and fatally stabbed him as he tried to flee faced sentencing in the Queensland Supreme Court on Monday.

A victim impact statement was read to Justice Lincoln Crowley, in which Mekonnen’s siblings said they had suffered “horrors and challenges” growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya.

“The impact of being a victim of murder, to losing Girum to a barbaric [killing] is incomparable,” the family said.

“All involved in planning, executing and concealing my brother’s murder will forever be responsible for killing my dreams.”

Mekonnen’s mother said her happiest time was when her son was born.

“The saddest and most sorrow was when they snatched your life and killed you.”

Justice Crowley heard Mekonnen had worked hard towards a life goal of lifting his family out of poverty in Australia and Ethiopia.

“We live our life with our spirit buried with him in the ground. This loss will be unforgettable,” the family’s statement said.

In sentencing, Justice Crowley said the men had used dangerous weapons including a baseball bat covered in spikes and a machete in a brazen ambush in public.

“You murdered an unarmed and innocent young man in a gutless group attack,” Justice Crowley said.

The defendants were sentenced for nine other charges including causing grievous bodily harm with intent, unlawful wounding with bats, knives and machetes and assault causing bodily harm against multiple other victims.

Kresto Wal Wal, 29, Gabreal Wal Wal, 31, Santo Wal, 36, Joseph Lokolong, 28, Majok Riel Majok, 23, Abraham Ajang Yaak, 30, Alex Edward Deng, 22, Chan Kuchmol Kon, 28, Ben Abio, 24 and Juma Makuol Deng Makuol, 28 were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutor Nathan Crane had sought the mandatory 20-year period without parole to be lifted to 25 years for all defendants.

Justice Crowley declined to extend the non-parole period for any of them.

Earlier in March he found the 10 men, including three brothers, guilty of murdering Mekonnen, following a judge-only trial in November.

Justice Crowley found the motive for the park attack was retaliation against a group suspected of bashing John Wal Wal, the brother of several defendants, at an Ipswich shopping centre five days before Mekonnen was stabbed.

They yelled words to the effect of “this is for my brother” and “you hurt my brother” when they attacked Mekonnen and other victims, the judge said.

Justice Crowley said Mekonnen was innocent of the attack on John Wal Wal.

“Once [the ambush] was under way, you didn’t care who was there and whether they were involved or not,” Justice Crowley said.

“Fuelled by gangster bravado and blood lust, you might have thought you were tough men avenging.

“You were cowardly thugs attacking a group of young men and two young women.”

The defendants had their non-parole periods shortened because of time served, which ranged from nearly five weeks to more than four years.

Justice Crowley said most of the defendants had fled lawlessness and violence in South Sudan or been born in refugee camps.

But there was no justification for the armed attack.

Lokolong will face deportation proceedings upon release.