A New South Wales man who strangled his wife two decades ago has finally faced justice, jailed for at least 16-and-a-half years.

Steven Fesus did not react, only waving to his mother as he was led away after the verdict was read at the New South Wales Supreme Court this morning.

Outside court, Jodie Fesus' father said it was a good result after 20 years.

“I’m not going to say closure - we haven’t got Jodie,” Roland Smith said.

“But now he’s in jail. He has to put up with it, everyday looking at a cell to say, ‘righto, I’ve been done’.

“He’s still breathing, which I’m not real keen on. But I can’t do anything about it, I don’t want to do anything about it because he is, where he should have been 20 years ago.”

Steven Fesus was 26 when he married Jodie, who was aged just 18 years and one month.

The relationship quickly disintegrated and Mrs Fesus was telling those close to her she was unhappy and intended to leave with the children.

Three months later she relayed that to Fesus, there was a heated argument in the lounge room and he strangled her.

He placed her body in the back of their station wagon, drove to Seven Mile Beach and buried her body in a shallow grave.

He then claimed she had left him, and only admitted to what he had done six years later during a conversation with an undercover police officer.

“The offender told the undercover officer that he had been slaving his a*** off day and night... whilst Jodie had been lazy,” Justice Peter Johnson told the court.

While she was still “missing” he went to the Department of Social Security with a woman he was romantically interested in and filled out a form to claim a pension.

“The offender made a significant slip in that he noted his wife was deceased and not just missing,” Justice Johnson found.

He said Fesus was becoming increasingly unsettled that his wife’s body had not been found and made anonymous calls to police to lead them to the gravesite.

That same day they found her body he went back to the Department of Social Security.

Justice Johnson said that was telling because if he had been a grieving husband that would have an “unimportant and certainly not urgent” step.

“The murder was callous and selfish and deprived Jodie of her adult life and her children of their mother.”

“In truth the offender has wreaked havoc upon the entire family… far beyond that witnessed in many other cases.”

Comforted by Jodie’s sister outside court today, Mr Smith said the sentence would allow them to get on with their lives.

“We can just say to everybody, he’s been sentenced. We’ve said it all along. People have argued about it,” Mr Smith said.

He said it was hard to see his grandchildren walk past without acknowledging anyone from their family.

"We lost Jodie but we've lost a lot of kids as well," he said, referring to Jodie and Fesus' older children.

"As we say, Jodie was murdered and we've lost kids that are still alive. It gets hard, when you see photos of them and when you walk around here and they don't even acknowledge you."

Fesus, who is now aged 47, will be eligible for parole in 2033.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018