Cleaner admits murdering bride-to-be Stephanie Scott
A school cleaner has pleaded guilty to murdering New South Wales teacher Stephanie Scott, one week before her country wedding.
In the NSW Supreme Court today, Vincent Stanford, 25, admitted murdering the 26-year-old in April last year.
Her body was discovered in a burned patch of scrub in the Cocoparra National Park on April 10, the day before she had planned to walk down the aisle with her childhood sweetheart Aaron Leeson-Woolley.
Stanford, who appeared via video-link from Sydney’s Long Bay jail, also pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with Scott without her consent, in circumstances of aggravation in that he deprived her of her liberty before the offence.
His twin brother Marcus Stanford, from Adelaide, has previously pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
On Sunday April 5, 2015, Scott had popped into her classroom at Leeton High school to do some preparations.
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The popular teacher planned to be away for a couple of weeks on her Tahiti honeymoon and wanted to make sure drama and English lesson plans were in place for her substitute.
At midday, she sent an email to a bus company confirming transport for the guests to her country wedding the following weekend.
But she did not return home to Leeson-Woolley that evening and he reported her missing the next day.
The case has been adjourned to Griffith for a sentence hearing on October 11.
-AAP
