Church official sorry for priest’s comments on Jill

An official in the Catholic Church in Australia has apologised after a priest said murdered Irishwoman Jill Meagher would have been “home in bed” the night she was killed had her religious faith been stronger.

The priest was delivering a homily at St Christopher’s Primary School in the Melbourne suburb of Airport West yesterday when he raised a copy of a newspaper referencing Ms Meagher’s murder by Australian man Adrian Bayley.

The priest said if Ms Meagher had been “more faith-filled”, she “would have been home in bed” and “not walking down Sydney Road at 3am”.