‘Parole board let evil rapist prey on Jill’

The husband of murdered Jill Meagher says the man who raped and murdered his wife is “unrepentantly evil”.

Adrian Ernest Bayley was jailed for life but granted a 35-year non-parole period in the Victorian Supreme Court in Australia, but Mr Meagher said his wife would still be alive if the parole board had done its job.

“The number one priority of the parole board should be to protect the innocent and that’s what they didn’t do in this case and that’s why Jill isn’t here,” Mr Meagher said. “It makes my blood boil and sends a disturbing message. This man is unrepentantly evil.”

Mr Meagher, in an interview with ABC, had to stop and regain his composure as he spoke about his wife who died at the hands of a serial rapist, whom he described as a monster.

“She was incredibly funny, incredibly witty, and just so smart and intelligent,” he said. “She just brightened up any room.”

A component of the life sentence handed down by Justice Geoffrey Nettle was a 15-year term for Bayley’s rape of Jill, a penalty Mr Meagher criticised.

“Fifteen years is a disgrace considering the maximum penalty for rape is 25 years. I don’t know what the maximum is for if it isn’t for that man,” he said.

Bayley has spent more than a quarter of his life behind bars for violent sexual offences.

Mr Meagher was also not impressed with the comments of Justice Nettle, who said Bayley had shown some degree of remorse for his heinous crime.

“It would matter in some cases but not in the case of a serial offender who keeps doing it over and over again,” Mr Meagher said.

“If he has a little cry I don’t know what difference that makes to the sentencing at all. Who cares if he has remorse?”

Jill’s father, George McKeon, was stoic as he faced media with a brief statement afterwards. “Justice has now been done. Police and prosecutors, we thank you,” he said.

A later statement told more of the family’s heartache: “This despicable crime against Jillian has happened and it has taken nine months to get resolved and to get justice. We have no sense of personal outrage, just a feeling of great sadness and great loss.”

Jill, who was born in Louth, had been less than 500m from her Brunswick home when Bayley dragged her into a laneway on Sept 22 last year, raping her before strangling her.

Sentencing Bayley, Justice Nettle recognised how Jill had the best years of her life ahead of her. “By your crimes, you have deprived her of all of that,” he told Bayley.

Bayley will be nearly 80 before he can apply for parole. Bayley said he was “just trying to help” Jill the night he raped and murdered her.

He told police she seemed distraught and he was trying to do the right thing.

Bayley was “not to be put off” when Jill rebuffed him, Justice Nettle said. “You were determined to have your way with her,” he said. “You overpowered her and raped her where she stood.”

After Bayley killed Jill, he sat by her body and cried. When police arrested him five days later, he told them “a farrago of lies”, initially denying any involvement.

He later confessed and led police to Gisborne South, where he had buried her body in a shallow grave. He told them he couldn’t believe what he had done.

Bayley was on Sydney Rd in Brunswick after a night drinking in the city when he saw Jill, who had shrugged off an offer from a workmate to walk her the short distance home.

When Jill rebuffed him, he became enraged. “I always try to do the right thing,” Bayley told police after they arrested him. “She flipped me off. That made me angry because I was just trying to help.”

They turned off Sydney Rd and walked down Hope St, where Bayley saw an opportunity and took it. He kissed Jill and tried to touch her. She stepped back and slapped him across the face.

Bayley then pushed her against a car and raped her.

She hit Bayley with her mobile phone, saying she was going to call the police.

Bayley then strangled her, holding her down until she stopped moving, in a crime Justice Nettle described as among the worst conceivable.

Killer’s life

After a childhood of physical and sexual abuse, Adrian Bayley committed his first rape when he was 18 and his wife was about four months’ pregnant.

He was charged but released on bail. While out on bail, he attacked a 17-year-old on the street and threatened to kill her.

Later that year, he offered a ride to a 16-year-old hitchhiker and attacked her.

After he was arrested for the three offences, he falsified a diary to create an alibi before confessing.

The judge at the time heard Bayley was very remorseful, but he was not convinced.

He was sentenced to five years’ jail but the judge said his pleas of guilty seemed to come in the face of overwhelming evidence against him rather than true remorse.

In 2001, Bayley was charged with 16 counts of rape against five women, causing one victim such severe injuries she bled for a week.

He initially denied the use of force, but once again, when confronted with the evidence admitted guilt and expressed remorse.

When he attacked Jill Meagher, he had already served 11 years in prison for a broad range of sexual offences.

His name will be added to a list of registered sex offenders and, if he lives long enough to be eligible for parole and is ever released from jail, he will be required to comply with the reporting obligations until he dies.

Sentence angers victims groups

A judge has given Jill Meagher’s killer a slim chance at freedom, angering Melbourne victims groups who want a stronger stand on violence against women.

The court was told that Bayley had a history of violent sex attacks and had previously raped 21 times, the first time when he was 18 years old.

Justice Geoffrey Nettle jailed Bayley for life for Jill’s murder and 15 years for her rape, but set a non-parole period, saying he wanted Bayley to have some incentive to work at rehabilitation.

Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said Bayley is incredibly dangerous and should never be freed. “His record of crimes that he’s committed in the past is just unbelievable,” he said. “It’s another travesty of the justice system.”

Justice Nettle said Bayley’s crime was made even worse given he tried to hide Jill’s body and he was on parole for prior rape convictions.

“The nature and gravity of your offending and your antecedents are such that nothing short of life imprisonment will suffice,” he said.

But he rejected the prosecution’s request for life with no parole and said he was satisfied Bayley had some remorse. “I consider your plea of guilty and what I consider to be some small degree of genuine remorse keeps you out of that category,” Justice Nettle said.