Adrian Bayley has been found guilty of more than 20 rape and assault offences dating back to 1990 and has been imprisoned for most of his adult life.
Bayley started his criminal career as an 18-year-old when he raped the 16-year-old girlfriend of his sister. In August 1990, the month after his 19th birthday, he attempted to rape and threatened to kill a 17-year-old woman whom he did not know.
Four months later, he attempted to rape a 16-year-old hitchhiker whom he abducted in his car and drove to a remote area.
In June 1991, he pleaded guilty to those offences and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with a minimum of three years.
He was released less than two years later. He later admitted he had basically “gone through the motions” of rehabilitation so that he could secure early release from prison.
Bayley made this admission during a court appearance regarding 16 counts of rape committed between September 2000 and March 2001. He pleaded guilty to the charges, all of which were committed against prostitutes working in St Kilda.
During sentencing in the County Court in 2002, Judge Tony Duckett said Bayley had driven his victims to a lane behind a group of shops in Kendall Street, Elwood, before parking against a fence so they could not open the passenger door.
“You used an array of threats and violence to force your victims to satisfy your gross sexual appetite,” Judge Duckett said.
“Your conduct went far beyond mere sexual gratification.
“You forced your victims to accept a series of sexual acts that caused them horrifying distress.”
Judge Duckett found that Bayley, who had changed his surname from Edwards about two months before the attacks, had wanted to demean his victims.
He said Bayley had a long-term need to attack, sexually assault and humiliate young women whom he did not know.
“Your response to pleading, cries of pain and tears was to force these women into further sexual acts. There are descriptions given by victims of the haunting, psychological consequences of your actions,” Judge Duckett said.
“The ending of relationships; the ending of legitimate career prospects; and in one case, the relationship between a mother and her child.
“In addition to the violence offered, there is another and more disturbing aspect of your conduct: that is the deliberate humiliation of your victims.”
Judge Duckett said that on one occasion, Bayley told his victim: “I could dump you in the f---ing alley and no one will give a shit” and “Did that f---ing hurt? See, look who’s got the power. See, I can do whatever I want.”
He apologised to one victim, before driving off, laughing at her and telling her he would do it again.
Judge Duckett said that while Bayley was supported by his family and partner in court, it was not clear whether they knew the full extent of his horrific crimes.
“If you retain the support of your family in the face of their full knowledge of what you have done, then you are a very fortunate person,” he said.
Bayley was released from prison in 2010. He was on parole until March 17th, 2013.
In August 2011, after a night out in Geelong, Bayley king-hit a 20-year-old man, breaking his jaw and leaving him unconscious.
Bayley, then aged 40, appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court on February 28th, 2012.
The Geelong Advertiser reported that Bayley told the police who arrested him that he remembered being in an altercation but was too drunk to recall punching the man.
Prosecutor leading senior constable David Vanderpol said the victim was eating outside a cafe about 1.30am when Bayley started abusing him and punched him in the face.
When Adrian Bayley was arrested for the rape and murder of Jill Meagher, he told homicide detectives how the authorities had been wrong to release him on parole two years earlier.
Bayley, a father of four, insisted he should have been in prison and not free to walk the streets and abduct ABC employee Jill Meagher on September 22nd last year in Brunswick.
He had been released on parole in 2010 after serving eight years of an 11-year prison sentence for raping five prostitutes.
His parole was not even revoked when he was sentenced to three months jail in February last year for attacking a man in Geelong.
“Man I just - I should be in jail anyway, you know,” Bayley told police on September 27 after his arrest.
“I shouldn’t have been let out last time, simple.
“And I say that in hope someone hears that and they don’t ever let me out again.
“How many chances does a person need?
“But I didn’t run. I didn’t - didn’t know what to do. It’s a horrible feeling, man.”
Bayley has pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of rape. Two other rape charges were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Bayley had been due to stand trial on the murder charge on September 30th before he changed his plea.
In his record of interview with police, Bayley said: “When I came home from prison in 2010 man, people did not even know who I was, because I wasn’t that same arrogant, angry, terrible person you know. I was an arsehole. You know, I worked and worked hard you know. And now I just go back to prison.
“And you know what, I hope I never get out, because you know why I hope that, because then no one else ever has to be hurt, because someone hurts me. I don’t deal with - with hurt very well.
“You know it really wasn’t my intention to hurt her, you know that?
“I want to do the right thing, you know. I don’t care. I’m - I’m going to go to jail for a long time ... I hope they bring back the death penalty before I get sentenced.
“I have no life left.
“I’m 41 years old. I’ve already done eight years in prison ... I can’t do that again for what 20 years, 25 years. Nah. It’s no life man. They should have the death penalty for people like me anyway.
“I know what’s gonna happen, I’m not stupid. I’ve been through the system you know.
“I loose (sic) everything now. I loose everything man. I loose my family, what little of it I have.”
Bayley went on to tell police his girlfriend was “gone now”.
“She meant so much in my life.”
Bayley says there is no explanation for what he did.
“There’s no excuses for this. All right? I don’t wanna make up excuses ... for her family this week it must have been hell, you know what I mean?
“I can’t imagine how - how she felt but I know how I felt. It’s not nice, man, it’s not nice. And all I thought was ‘what have I done?’
“That’s all I thought. That was the thought in my head, what I have done after I said sorry.
I don’t know what else to say, man, I don’t know what else to say.”
The Age