CCTV footage showing the final moments of Jill Meagher’s life and her alleged killer sprinting towards her have been released.
Originally from Drogheda, Co. Louth, Jill Meagher, 29, was raped and murdered in Melbourne on September 22 last.
The Herald Sun has released the chilling video of the accused sprinting toward Meagher on the night of her murder. Meagher was set upon as she walked home along Sydney Road in Brunswick, after enjoying a night out with work colleagues.
The Irish woman’s husband Tom and father and mother, George and Edith McKeon, and her brother Michael faced the accused Adrian Ernest Bayley in court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to one count of rape but not guilty to murder.
In one of his initial interviews with police, Bayley told homicide detectives he had to take “responsibility” and thought the death penalty should be reintroduced.
“I hope they bring back the death penalty before I get sentenced,’’ he told detectives.
“… But I’ve done. I’ve already done it. I can’t – 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.’’
He told police he had never meant to hurt Meagher, he said he stopped to “help her” because she looked lost.
But she “flipped me off and that made me angry.”
A witness, Yuxiang He, who lives near the Hope St laneway where Meagher allegedly lost her life, told the court on Monday he heard a woman repeatedly yell: "Get out of there," in a sharp loud voice on the night of her murder.
He said he thought the argument could have been coming from another building.
Bayley sat in the dock, behind protective glass as the court heard his alleged crimes.
The court heard Bayley accosted his victim and dragged her into a laneway at 1:38am on September 22 where he raped her three times and strangled her.
Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert, said Bayley then left his victim’s body in the laneway, to return home to collect a shovel and his car at around 4:20 am.
He put Ms Meagher's body in the trunk of his car and drove her to Blackhill Rd in Gisborne South where he buried her, the court was told.
The victim’s husband Tom raised the alarm after she failed to return home after a night out with co-workers. Her body was found six days later in a shallow grave, 31 miles outside the city.
Her case created massive publicity and 30,000 people took part in a peace march in her name in Melbourne
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