Jill Meagher’s rapist and killer, Adrian Bayley, was a hunter of vulnerable women who will be at least 86 before he could possibly walk free from prison, a court has heard.
County Court judge Sue Pullen set a new non-parole period for Bayley of 43 years starting on Thursday after he was found guilty of brutally raping three women – one in 2000 and two others just months before he raped and murdered Ms Meagher in September 2012 when on parole.
This means he will be aged 86 when he becomes eligible for parole in 2058 – if he doesn’t die in prison – but even then the authorities might refuse to release him.
Judge Pullen said Bayley had shown no remorse for raping the three women who had feared for their lives during their terrifying ordeals.The judge said Bayley’s offending was to say the least “very serious and disturbing”.
She described the way Bayley had targeted the three vulnerable women as “chilling”.
“Each, in their own way, were easy prey,” the judge said.
She said Bayley at the time was an experienced hunter of women and once the three victims were in his sights “their fate was sealed”.
Judge Pullen said Bayley had for many years violated the basic rights of women in the community and there was very little hope for his eventual rehabilitation.
She said she was conscious the sentence she had imposed meant Bayley would most likely die in prison.
Bayley was sentenced in June 2013 to life imprisonment with a minimum 35 years after pleading guilty to raping and murdering Ms Meagher, 29, in a Brunswick laneway off Sydney Road when on parole.
The sentencing judge, Justice Geoffrey Nettle, decided not to jail Bayley for life without parole to give Bayley some incentive to rehabilitate himself in prison. He considered Bayley’s guilty plea reflected some small degree of remorse.
Psychological testing had revealed Bayley was not a psychopath but had a borderline personality disorder that manifested in rapid and extreme mood swings, and, in particular, poorly controlled anger.
Bayley claimed to have been physically abused by his father from when he was nine, and sexually abused by an older female relative when he was aged nine to 15.
Justice Nettle said if Bayley had not pleaded guilty, he would have jailed him for life with no parole.
Bayley would have been eligible for parole on June 14, 2048, when aged 76 but that was before his convictions for raping the three other women.
Bayley was charged with the rapes while in custody over Ms Meagher’s rape and murder.
He faced three separate trials in the County Court over an eight-month period, with the final trial ending on March 26, and was found guilty of all charges.
Judge Pullen said on Thursday she had taken into account Bayley’s onerous conditions in jail when sentencing him to 18 years for attacking and raping the three women.
Bayley is currently being held in protective custody at the Melbourne Assessment Prison and is only allowed out of his cell for between one to three hours a day.
His Victoria Legal Aid lawyers argued Judge Pullen did not have the power to revoke his non-parole period and order he never be released.
They said that apart from Stanley Taylor, the mastermind behind the Russell Street bombing, and Robert Lowe, who kidnapped and murdered six-year-old Sheree Beasley, every prisoner serving life imprisonment without parole had been convicted of multiple killings.
And only two of those prisoners serving life without parole had pleaded guilty to murder but, unlike Bayley, they had had prior convictions for murder.
The first of Bayley’s three rape trials began on July 1, 2014, before Bayley was found guilty of attacking an 18-year-old sex worker between October 31 and December 1, 2000, in a secluded laneway in Elwood.
Bayley’s second trial began on March 4 when he was found guilty of raping a 25-year-old sex worker at Elwood on April 5, 2012.
His third trial began on March 16 when he was found guilty of raping a 27-year-old Dutch backpacker at Balaclava on July 15, 2012 – just two months before he would rape and murder Ms Meagher.
Bayley showed no emotion as he was led from the dock on Thursday but is expected to appeal his convictions.
This story first appeared in The Age
