Adrian Ernest Bayley has spent the first night of his life sentence in jail for the rape and murder of Melbourne woman Jill Meagher.
Bayley was jailed for life with a non-parole period of 35 years on Wednesday for what a judge described as one of the worst conceivable murders.
However, Jill Meagher’s husband Tom has described the component of the sentence for rape as a “disgrace”.
Meagher was only 500 metres from home when Bayley raped then strangled her in a Brunswick laneway on September 22 last year.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle said the combination of rape and murder was particularly heinous and made even worse by Bayley’s attempt to conceal the body and the fact he was on parole and bail at the time.
“You dragged her off the street late at night while she was going peaceably about her own business within a stone’s throw of her home,” Justice Nettle told Bayley.
“The rape was savage and degrading.
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“In terms of moral culpability your killing of the deceased ranks among the worst kinds conceivable.”
Bayley, 41, will need to be isolated from other prisoners throughout his prison term for his own protection.
He will be aged around 76 when his first opportunity for parole arises.
Meagher’s husband Tom told ABC TV last night that Bayley was unrepentant and evil.
He said Victoria’s parole board had failed him and Jill’s family by letting Bayley back out on the streets before he had served his maximum time for previous violent offences.
“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,” Meagher said.
“It makes my blood boil and sends a disturbing message. This man is unrepentantly evil.”
Meagher remembered Jill as smart and witty and someone who could light up the room when she walked in.
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An emotional Meagher, in an interview with the ABC-TV, 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 Nettle was a 15-year term for Bayley’s rape of Jill Meagher, a penalty Tom Meagher described as a disgrace.
“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,” Meagher said.
Bayley has spent more than a quarter of his life behind bars for violent sexual offences.
Meagher also was 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,” 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.”
He said Jill’s murder had made him fearful and extraordinarily angry.
