FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

The VICE Guide to Right Now

Melbourne Killer Adrian Bayley's Sentence Reduced by Three Years

Convicted for the murder of 29-year-old Jill Meagher in 2013, Bailey has successfully appealed to have his 43 year minimum term shortened.

Adrian Bayley, who was convicted for the murder and rape of Jill Meagher in 2013, has successfully appealed to shorten his 43 year minimum jail term by three years. Bayley will now be 83 years of age when he becomes eligible for parole in 2055.

This morning, the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed one of three sentences for sexual assault that Bayley had been serving separately to his 35 year sentence for the rape and murder of Meagher. All three incidents took place prior to the attack on Meagher, which occurred when the 29-year-old ABC employee was walking home from post work drinks in September 2012.

Advertisement

Today's overturned conviction concerned Bayley's alleged rape of an eighteen-year-old Saint Kilda sex worker in 2000. The alleged victim identified Bayley as her rapist in 2012, after seeing information about the Jill Meagher attack on Facebook and recognising his face in an accompanying image.

Court of Appeal justices Marilyn Warren, Mark Weiberg, and Phillip Priest ruled that this was not strong enough evidence to convict Bayley of that sexual assault, given the alleged victim had recognised her attacker 12 years after the incident on the basis of a single photograph.

Bayley was appealing two other sexual assault convictions as well, for two incidents that took place in April and July of 2012—just months prior to the attack on Meagher. Both of these appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal justices.

The acquittal ruling comes one day ahead of the serial sex offender's 45th birthday.

As judges re-sentenced Bayley, they commented that his prospects for rehabilitation were minimal. "As his criminal history amply demonstrates, his base inclinations have not, in the past, been curbed by substantial periods of imprisonment," they said.

When Bayley attacked Jill Meagher in 2012, he was on parole from several previous jail sentences. During his sentencing for the attack, the judge commented that the killing "ranks among the worst kind of conceivable."

"The nature and gravity of your offending and your antecedents are such that nothing short of life imprisonment will suffice," he said at the time.

Victorian Legal Aid has refused to represent Bayley in his appeal, but he was eventually able to secure pro-bono counsel from barrister Saul Holt.

Follow Kat on Twitter