Shae Lee Parker, 24, was interviewed by police on August 27 in 2013 over the disappearance of Mr Watkins, who has not been seen since August 7.

Parker made a statutory declaration to police in which she said her brother had turned up at her house with two friends, known as Old Buddha and Red, on the night of Mr Watkins disappearance.

She was interviewed again in August 2015 and told police her previous statement was false.

Parker told police that on the night of Mr Watkins’s disappearance, her brother arrived at her home about 11pm and was upset and shaking.

Her brother then told her he and Mr Watkins had been taken from his house, hog tied and put into the boot of a car before being driven to bushland, ripped from the car and interrogated by Old Buddha and Red.

He told her Watkins was shot and told to run and when he did not cooperate, he was shot again and Parker’s brother was forced to watch and then help bury Mr Watkins.

Parker pleaded guilty to charges of failing to report the killing of a person and making a false declaration.

Supreme Court judge Shan Tennent said in her sentencing report: “You had no direct involvement in the events which you accept resulted in Mr Watkins death.

“It is difficult to say just what impact on the police investigation into the death your failure to disclose might have had.”

Parker was convicted in the Launceston Supreme Court on Monday and sentenced to nine months in prison, wholly suspended.

She was ordered to pay a victim of crime compensation levy of $100 within 28 days.

“I accept that when you first spoke to police in 2013 you feared for your own and your brother’s safety … in my view the prospects of rehabilitation, given your age and circumstances should assume greater importance than general deterrence.”