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Adrian Bayley jailed for life for murder of Jill Meagher Adrian Bayley jailed for life for murder of Jill Meagher
(42 minutes later)
Adrian Ernest Bayley has been jailed for life and given a 35-year non-parole period for the rape and murder of Melbourne woman Jill Meagher. Adrian Bayley has been sentenced to life in prison, with a 35-year non-parole period, for the rape and murder of Jill Meagher.
Victorian supreme court justice Geoffrey Nettle jailed Bayley for life for the murder plus 15 years for the rape. Judge Geoffrey Nettle said that Bayley subjected Meagher to a “savage and degrading” assault in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick on 22 September last year and that his multiple previous attacks on women demanded that he be sent to prison for a lengthy period.
"The nature and gravity of your offending and its antecedence ensure that nothing but life imprisonment will suffice," Nettle told Bayley. Bayley, who remained impassive throughout the sentencing at Victoria’s supreme court, was imprisoned for life for the murder and 15 years for Meagher’s rape. He will also serve three years for breaching his parole by committing the attacks. Nettle said the sentences should be served cumulatively.
"It was a savage, violent rape of the worst kind. “This was a woman who was unknown to you, who you dragged off the street as she was going about her peaceful business,” Nettle said. “As a strong man, you physically dominated her and subjected her to a savage and degrading rape.”
"Your killing of the deceased ranks among the worst kind conceivable. Nettle said that Bayley had told a “farrago of lies” to police before admitting the crime, adding that his “depraved” actions would have seen him sentenced to life without parole, were it not for his guilty plea.
"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt you pose a risk to the sexual safety of the community." “I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that you intended to kill her,” he said. “You could’ve easily controlled her but whether it was a sadistic pleasure for hurting women or fear of being caught, you strangled her when she threatened to call the police.
Nettle said Bayley would not have received a minimum term if he had not pleaded guilty. "This was particularly heinous as you hid the body and were on parole at the time. You are a recidivist, violent sex offender, with no compunction for inflicting pain on women."
At the time of Meagher’s murder on 22 September last year, Bayley was on parole for raping five women in the bayside suburb of Elwood in 2002.
In a pre-sentence hearing last Tuesday, defence barrister Saul Holt said Bayley accepted that a life sentence was “appropriate”, but asked for a specific non-parole period so that he had the chance of being released in the future.
Bayley, 41, was previously found guilty of 20 rapes over a 23-year period, 11 years of which he spent in jail. His history of repeated attacks on women have raised questions over Victoria’s parole regime, with the state premier, Denis Napthine, saying the system “failed Jill Meagher" and would be reviewed.
Bayley committed his first rape aged 18, when he trapped a 16-year-old girl in his house before assaulting her. Within a year, he had raped two other women, one a hitchhiker. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 1991, but was released after two years.
In 2000, he embarked upon a series of rapes in Elwood. He attacked five different women who were working as prostitutes, each time parking his car close to a wall behind a row of shops so they could not open the door to escape.
He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2002 but, after completing a sex offender treatment program, was released on parole in 2009.
In February last year, he attacked a man in Geelong, breaking the victim’s jaw and knocking him unconscious. Bayley was handed a three-month term, but he appealed against the sentence and his parole was not revoked, allowing him to be free on bail at the time when he killed Meagher.
Meagher, who worked for ABC Radio, was attacked shortly after she left Bar Etiquette in Sydney Road, Brunswick at 1.30am.
Bayley, who was captured on CCTV running behind Meagher on Sydney Road, dragged his victim into a nearby laneway off Hope Street before raping and strangling her.
He then left the scene of the crime until 4.22am, when he returned in his Holden Astra. He drove Meagher’s body to Gisborne South, about 45km from the scene of the crime, where he buried her in a shallow grave.
Bayley was arrested five days after the murder following widespread media attention on the case and a Facebook campaign aimed at finding Meagher. He pleaded guilty to her rape and murder in April.
Psychologist Prof James Ogloff said Bayley claims to have been abused by his father and a female relative when he was a child. Ogloff said Bayley, while remorseful, was a calculating predator who enjoyed dominating his female victims.
In a victim impact statement read out in court last week, Meagher’s husband, Tom, who began searching the streets for her at 4am on the night of her murder, said his life would “never be normal again”.
“I miss her insight, fun and wit, her huge smile and infectious personality,” he said.
“I think of her every second of every day and I think of the pain of never being able to laugh with her again.
“I think of the waste of a brilliant mind and a beautiful soul at the hands of a grotesque and soulless human being.
“I think of how in love we were and of how much I've lost and how much of my life and dreams were built around Jill. I am half a person because of this crime."
In a brief statement outside court, Meagher's family said they were pleased that justice had been done and thanked the police for their work. "Jill was raped and murdered ... and she's never coming back," said her father, George McKeon.
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