‘I hope they bring back the death penalty before I get sentenced’

“They should have the death penalty for people like me,” Adrian Bayley told police after admitting he raped and strangled Jill Meagher in a Melbourne laneway.

The 41-year-old pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday to one charge of raping Ms Meagher in the early hours of Sept 22 last year. He then pleaded not guilty to her murder and another two charges of rape.

Chief prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC said Bayley dragged Ms Meagher into a laneway off Hope St as she walked home from a Brunswick bar.