Jill Meagher’s killer has jail sentence extended for rapes

The man who raped and murdered Irish woman Jill Meagher in September 2012 will be at least 86 before he is eligible for parole, a Melbourne court has ruled.

Adrian Bayley cannot be released before 2058, and even then a court may refuse to release him.

Bayley would have been eligible for parole 10 years earlier, but that was before his convictions for raping three other women. Judge Sue Pullen set a new non-parole period for Bayley of 43 years starting today after he was found guilty of raping the three women; one in 2000 and two others just months before he raped and murdered Ms Meagher while on parole.

The judge said Bayley had for many years violated the basic rights of women in the community and there was little hope he could be rehabilitated.

She said the victims had suffered considerably and Bayley was likely to die in jail.

“I was also conscious that the sentence I have imposed, will most likely, ensure you have likely forfeited your rights to hope [for], or expectation of, eventual release from prison,” Judge Pullen said.

“You have repeatedly over many years violated the basic rights of women in the community and with similar sexual offending to that before me.

“Your repeated violent offending and gravity of that offending provides little to offer the faintest glimmer of hope.

“Even if there were any considerations of rehabilitation, they must in your case be subordinated to the gravity of your offending.”

She said Bayley’s offending was “very serious and disturbing” and the way he targeted the women was “chilling”.

“Each, in their own way, were easy prey,” Judge Pullen said.

In victim impact statements read at a pre-sentence hearing, the women said they still suffered from the assaults.

One said she suffered depression, anxiety and had difficulty trusting people.

Another said she drank and self-harmed and vomited any time she heard his name.

The third said she still had not told her parents about her ordeal.

Bayley was sentenced in June 2013 to life imprisonment with a minimum of 35 years after pleading guilty to raping and murdering Ms Meagher (29), who was originally from Co Louth, in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.

In that case the sentencing judge, Geoffrey Nettle, did not jail Bayley for life without parole in order to give him some incentive to rehabilitate himself in prison. He considered Bayley's guilty plea reflected a small degree of remorse.

Psychological testing had revealed Bayley was not a psychopath but had a borderline personality disorder that resulted in rapid and extreme mood swings and poorly controlled anger.

Bayley is being held in “protection” in the Metropolitan Assessment Prison because of the perceived threat to him from other prisoners.

He has been found guilty of more than 20 rape offences. His other victims included his 16-year-old sister’s friend 25 years ago, a teenage hitchhiker and several prostitutes.

When Bayley murdered Ms Meagher he was out of prison on parole after serving eight years of an 11-year maximum sentence for rape.