An Australian man has been given a life sentencing for raping and murdering an Irish woman while he was out on parole, following past allegations of raping five other women.
41-year-old Adrian Ernest Bayley was indicted on Wednesday at the Victoria State Supreme Court in Melbourne. He will not be considered for parole for at least 35 years.
Bayley pled guilty to the rape and strangulation of Jill Meagher, who was walking home alone from a bar after she was out drinking with co-workers in Melbourne on Sept. 22 of last year. One of Meagher's friends reportedly offered to walk her home, but she declined.
Bayley crossed Meagher in the middle of the street and then pulled her into a an alley located a few hundred yards from her home.
A surveillance camera caught Bayley accosting her on the busy avenue.
Bayley's crime sparked widespread outrage and shock in Melbourne-so much so that the following week, nearly 30,000 people flooded the streets near the enclosed lane where she was strangled to death. The assemblage held signs bearing messages against violence toward women, the Associated Press reported.
Meagher, 29, was an Irish woman born in the city of Drogheda. She was an administrative worker for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
During the court hearing, husband Tom Meagher said that his faith in mankind no longer existed.
"I think of the waste of a brilliant mind and a beautiful soul at the hands of a grotesque and soulless human being," he said during his statement of victim impact, AP reported.
"I am half a person because of this crime," he finished.
Justice Geoffrey Nettle called the crime "the worst kind," following Prosecutor Gavin Silbert's suggestion that Bayley not receive even a hint of parole for the next three decades.
"It was a savage violent rape of the worst kind," Nettle said. "Your killing of the deceased ranks among the worst kind conceivable."
Bayley previously served an eight year sentencing for raping five other women; that was his second conviction for violent sex crimes.
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