A Murder That Shook Australia: The Case Of Jill Meagher

uh 30th of october 1983 in drokada ireland jillian mckeon was born to parents george and edith [Music] a few years later her parents took her and her brother michael to australia when her father was given a job in perth while there she went to bull creek primary school and then went on to study at ross moyne high school a friend from primary school said jill had a huge passion for drama and was a natural entertainer she was such a vivacious girl really bright bubbly and so gorgeous her family would return to ireland in 1996 where she would attend a grammar school and then later on a community college parents returned to perth in 2004 but she stayed in ireland and attended university college dublin where she would ultimately obtain her bachelor of arts degree during her time as a student she worked in the student bars it was also here that she met tom ma and they soon started a relationship despite her small five-foot-one frame her big personality packed a huge punch bright and friendly she had a huge impact on those she met a childhood friend said jill was just the most beautiful soul she was nice to everyone she met and she wouldn't have to fly in 2008 jill and tom married and the following year they relocated to australia after settling in melbourne she began working for the australian broadcasting corporation also known as abc her job at abc was as a unit coordinator and also included occasional on-air work at the 774 abc melbourne radio station her parents were again living in perth and she kept in regular contact with them too the bond between her and her family remained strong her brother michael moved back to australia after living for a while in canada no matter where they were in the world they always made time for each other jill went out with co-workers to the brunswick green bar on sydney road after staying there for a while they moved on to bar etiquette which was also located on sydney road as the night began to wind down at around 1 30 am jill decided it was time to leave and so left the bar on foot to walk back home to the flats she shared with tom according to the irish independent her brother had attempted to call her several times but got no answer back at the flat tom woke up to realise she still hadn't come home and so went out to search for her at around 4 am after going everywhere he could think of without finding a trace of her and with her still not answering her phone he contacted the police as the news that she was missing began to circulate her colleagues at abc took to twitter to get the message out there a facebook page called help find jill maher was set up on the 23rd of september and the poster campaign was launched to circulate as many images of her as possible the scale of the search and media interest was huge within just five days of the facebook page being launched it had received over 100 000 likes as the search continued on the 24th of september an important discovery was made in the laneway near hope streets jill's bag was found hope street was not far from where she lived with her husband following this the police made an announcement that so many people had been dreading they were handing the case over to the homicide squad her husband tom also went before the media to talk about his wife's disappearance tom what are you going through uh hell it's just devastating but um yeah just trying to push on um as much as possible what's uh keeping your what's keeping you going just uh hope just hope somebody saw something or she just walked through the door do you still think that'll you know it could happen today that you i have to yeah absolutely the following day officers had yet another breakthrough an employee of the duchess boutique a bridal shop on sydney road where she had been out with her friends handed in some cctv footage that was then released by victoria police the recording was limited as it was filmed through the window but it showed a man in a blue hoodie walking around outside the shop around four minutes later at 1 42 am jill could be seen on the footage talking to him and showing him her mobile phone this was the last known sighting of jill marr following the uncovering of the cctv footage they decided to change tac they were now looking for the man in the blue hoodie [Music] and that's cctv with people footage which we've all seen lisa has led police to uh concentrate uh much greater on the on their suspicion that she may have been abducted that's right they're particularly interested in talking to the man in a blue hoodie jeans and sneakers who were seen doubling back across that cctv footage he's described as being in around his 30s but it's quite good vision there and police are hoping that anyone who knows him or the man himself will come forward they say because of this cctv footage they're moving more and more towards the likelihood that she was abducted they also checked her cell phone records which showed that her phone had been moving down the freeway on the night she disappeared meaning it must have been in a car after checking the license plates of the cars caught on camera the police came to a horrifying realization her phone was moving at the same time as a car that was registered to a well-known and dangerous sex offender late today nearly six days after she vanished following a night out with friends police arrested a man joining us now from outside the sinkhilda road police headquarters after a police briefing a few minutes ago is our reporter hamish fitzsimmons same as you've just literally come from that briefing what are police saying or what are they able to say tony i have the worst possible news police say they expect to charge the man they've arrested with the rape and murder of jill marr they gave what the senior investigating officer said was an unprecedented but very off the record media briefing because he wanted to thank the media for its cooperation and uh ask for some sensitivity regarding this matter of course jill was a member of the abc family someone we saw around the building every day hamish it's obviously it's an awful question but it seems clear if they're going to charge him with rape and murder that that is what they believe has happened that would appear to be the case tony this was uh uh as the police officer said an unprecedented thing for him to do and it was it was just an absolute shock i mean even after all this time people especially within the abc were we're still hopeful and uh our thoughts go to uh jill's family and her husband tom is it clear how they got to this person that they've arrested did this come directly from the cc tv footage which we've all seen which has been so widely released and of course the hunt was on for someone wearing a blue hoodie police have said that they got the person that they were looking for they said the cctv vision had has played a major role in their investigation there was talk of much more uh closed circuit television footage from several shops along sydney road that had been collected by police in the last few days so they're pretty sure that they've solved this case adrian ernest bailey age 41 was arrested at his home in coburg and was then taken into custody he underwent hours of interviews and interrogation before he eventually confessed everything officers were stunned as he admitted to them he had strangled jill with his bare hands in a lane just off hope street eight hours later at 10 pm on the 27th of september he led officers to where her body had been left in a shallow grave on black hill road she was just a matter of weeks away from her 30th birthday following his arrest his defense lawyer requested a suppression order be in place to ban the publishing of any potentially damaging material about him this request was granted the police also came to a horrifying realization they found out that bayley had actually been on parole when he had raped and murdered jill he had been jailed back in 2002 for 11 years after raping five prostitutes over a six-month period he served eight years of his sentence before being released in 2010 his criminal history had began as an 18 year old when he raped the 16 year old girlfriend of his sister in august 1990 just one month after he turned 19 he attempted to rape and threaten to kill a 17 year old girl who he didn't know and just four months after that he attempted to rape a 16 year old girl she was hitchhiking and he abducted her in his car and drove out to a remote area before carrying out the attack in 1991 he was sent to prison for these offences after pleading guilty he served just 22 months of a five-year sentence he would later admit that he had actually cheated the system and just gone through the motions of rehabilitation in prison in order to secure an early release he had convinced them he was no longer a danger he admitted this during the court appearance regarding the 16 counts of rape committed between september 2000 and march 2001. these were all committed against the five sex workers working in saint kilda on one of these occasions he apologized to the victim before laughing at her telling her he would do it again and then driving away he pled guilty to all charges these were the offences he was on bail for when he murdered jill marr upon his release from prison in august 2011 the then 40 year old bailey spotted a man eating outside a cafe at around 1 30 a.m bayley proceeded to hurl abuse at the 20 year old before punching him in the face breaking his jaw and leaving him unconscious when being interviewed by officers following his arrest for the rape and murder of jill he said man i just i should be in jail anyway you know i shouldn't have been let out last time simple and i say that in hopes someone hears that and they don't ever let me out again how many chances does a person need the father of four also said you know it really wasn't my intention to hurt her you know that i want to do the right thing 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 there's no excuses for this 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 i don't know what else to say man i don't know what else to say at 2am on the 28th of september bayley was charged with the rape and murder of jill marr and an hour later had an out of sessions hearing that lasted for about 90 seconds he was held on remand to await trial the gravity of what he had done appeared to be weighing heavily on him as he attempted suicide while in custody the one question that people wanted answered was why why had he taken the life of a stranger in the most brutal and savage way imaginable he told a psychologist professor james ogloff that he had attempted to kiss and touch her outside of the brunswick laneway just off of sydney road she responded to it by stepping back and then slapping him across the face he told the psychologist that this response had enraged him and he lost it after she'd rejected his advances after the rape she hit him with her mobile phone and then threatened to call the police he responded by strangling her he also said that after he realized she was no longer breathing he sat in the laneway panic-stricken and crying unsure as to what to do he then drove home to get a shovel before returning to the crime scene he dragged her body into his car and drove out to ginsburn south where he dug the grave and attempted to bury her when the news broke about what had happened to jill maher everyone was devastated shortly after her body was found the australian flag at the abc south bank studios were flown at half-mast as a sign of respect part of a statement on the abc website read jill was a much-loved member of the local radio family she was witty intelligent and great company her friends and workmates at the abc will miss her greatly jill was an innocent victim a young vibrant woman with her whole life in front of her radio host john fain also paid an emotional tribute to her live on air jill wouldn't want us triple locking the door and installing closed circuit televisions everywhere as if we live under siege because that's not what it's about so this morning we'll pay our respects to our friend our colleague and there's a very empty space in our office this morning as news began to spread on social media of her body being found in just one day more than 600 messages of condolence had appeared on the help us find jilmar facebook page also that day around 12 million twitter timelines had referred to her it wasn't just her immediate circle that were affected by the tragedy the media reported that even inmates at the melbourne romance center were deeply affected so much so that 40 of them attended a requiem mass in the prison chapel led by the chaplain father joe caddy to pay their respects to jill and honor her life [Music] the shock and disbelief was palpable thousands of bouquets were being laid out in tribute to her as she was a roman catholic many were left outside a church near to where she had disappeared a candlelight vigil was also held at the church to honor her memory a major problem immediately after bayley's arrest came when some began searching for him in the white pages people found an a bailey which listed his address and telephone number and before long the number was being inundated with abusive phone calls the problem was this wasn't adrian bailey it was a man called andrew bailey after the case of mistaken identity came to light the phone calls and harassment stopped when people realised they had got the wrong person in her hometown of drokada ireland a memorial service was held on the 28th of september at sun oliver's community college with thousands in attendance on the 30th of september just two days after jill's body was found a melbourne photographer philip verner organized a public march he said he only expected around 100 people to turn up but the response was massive more than thirty thousand people walked side by side along sydney road in memory of jill [Music] would have been my daughters to stand up and be counted as peaceful citizens she should be remembered for making a difference for women all over the world it shouldn't be happening in a beautiful country like us the themes of violence against women became talking points in the media too the rally through brunswick came as jill's mother made her own emotional journey then sarah arbo was there and joins us now sarah you've missed you've witnessed quite a remarkable day i certainly have and a very emotional one really from start to finish earlier today we saw tens of thousands take to sydney road here in brunswick and melbourne's north to in the northern suburbs of melbourne rather simply to pay their respects to joel maher and the life she lost but what was perhaps more remarkable was when her mother made the journey over here all the way from perth with other members of her family now they visited the vigil that was set up here by members of the public who don't even themselves know jill there are hundreds of flowers and cards mrs mckeon went through some of those cards really taking in the words that have been left there she was also compelled to address some of the members of the public they wanted themselves to offer their condolences to her and they were united in a brief hug and some soft words spoken to one another now edith mckean herself wanted to thank not only the media but the police of course for their investigation and really just the public for their support here's what she had to say to 10 news earlier i would like to thank the huge support here in melbourne it's just been unbelievable [Music] just thank you simply thank you and um i hope they'll put more cameras in here keep people safe and just thank you everybody everybody for all your support after bayley had been charged various facebook users began to create pages about the case as some of them were openly hostile towards bailly the victoria police tried unsuccessfully to have the pages taken down as a result of this the premiere of victoria suggested it might be necessary to reform the law so that social media coverage could not prejudice a potential jury according to the irish independent her husband tom also backed these calls to have the posts in question removed facebook refused to remove the content leading to criticism from the victoria police chief commissioner ken lay he told fairfax radio that facebook would not cooperate in removing the page and that he was seeking legal advice though social media has been enormously helpful in this investigation it's also been very very difficult and we had cause to speak to facebook over the weekend and asked them to take the particular site down he said now they've refused to do that when you see the hatred that's incited by some of these sites it is very much the antithesis of what we saw yesterday with the 30 000 people taking to the streets saying let's try and make this a safer and fairer community the reclaim the night movement also organized a march on the 20th of october the reclaim the night march aims to give women a voice and empower them to feel safe walking the streets at night as well as highlight the issues of personal safety that many women find themselves trying to navigate on a daily basis on the 4th of october jill mars private funeral service took place at melbourne faulkner memorial park the family thanked the public again for their supports and the condolences that they had been offered [Music] those in attendance included colleagues from abc and police officers who were working on the case the considerable media attention led to a special area for journalists to observe from while the funeral was taking place as jill still had family back in ireland the following day a formal memorial mass took place at saint peter's church in her hometown of drokada with hundreds attending the priest who had married her and tom father oliver devine presided over the mass the whole town was brought to a standstill as people silently marched through the streets her uncle michael was given countless books of condolence from passers-by [Music] at a pre-committal hearing in january 2013 a two-day committal case in the melbourne magistrates court was scheduled to start on the 12th of march 2013. according to various news reports bayley intended to fight the charges against him however on the 5th of april 2013 he entered a plea of guilty to the rape and murder of jill marr 21 days later he was back in court to answer for several other sexual assaults in melbourne dating back to the year 2000 on these charges he entered a plea of not guilty deputy chief magistrate felicity broughton also granted the defense's application to extend the existing suppression order banning the publication of damaging or potentially prejudicial material about him with specific reference to the internet on the 12th of june bayley appeared in court for a pre-sentence hearing during this hearing victim impact statements were read out from the ma family and others including jill's supervisor from abc catherine hurley the devastation caused was immeasurable and it was also revealed in catherine's speech that many of jill's colleagues from work had had to seek counselling following her murder her widower tom said in a statement what was stolen from me on september 22nd 2012 was love my best friend and my entire world i think of the waste of a brilliant mind and a beautiful soul i am half a person because of this crime her brother michael said i am in dreadful pain i must carry on living a full life yet i will never forget my sister during this hearing bayley's lawyer saul hulk qc said that bayley understood he deserved a life sentence and that he was remorseful saying there is a sense of true remorse and true empathy about what he has done part of bailly's apology was also read out to the courts i'd like to apologize for my actions that night i destroyed a precious life and many others prosecutors hit back at the claim that he was remorseful arguing that as he had attempted to conceal the murder that proved he wasn't sorry for his actions during the meeting the suppression order was also lifted by justice jeffrey nettle which allowed for bailly's extensive history of rape and violence to be revealed and reported on the courtroom was packed out and the public gallery was full at the victorious supreme court adrian ernest bailey was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 35 years for the rape and murder of jill marr when sentencing him justice nettle said that adrian bailey was a sexual deviant who either killed jill because she was threatening to call the police after being raped by him or because the idea of taking her life aroused him you were larger and stronger than she and you use that physical advantage to dominate her in effect you dragged her off the streets late at night while she was peaceably going about her own business within a stone's throw of her home he also explained that had he not entered a plea of guilty he would have received life in prison without the possibility of parole throughout his sentencing bayley stared down at the floor only looking at once as his sentence was handed down outside the courthouse jill's devastated father george gave a statement jill lived a life full of family friends and her beloved tom jill was brutally raped and murdered and is never coming back following the high-profile case in june 2013 victoria's parole laws underwent a massive overhaul directly as a result of the murder of jill marr and other women being attacked and or killed by people on parole nearly three years earlier another melbourne woman elsa corp was attacked stabbed and strangled in a south melbourne motel by a convicted drug trafficker who like bayley was also out on parole under the new laws which were introduced in the victorian parliament later that week breaching parole would now be considered a separate offence a breach of parole could mean breaking a curfew or breaching an alcohol ban police could also take formal action if parole was breached and any violent offenders that committed a serious breach of their bail conditions could immediately be returned to prison the new premier of victoria said in june 2013 there is no doubt that the system failed jill ma under the changes we've already introduced the offender would have been back in jail not on the streets our actions are the minimum we can do to try and make sure this never ever happens again [Music] the changes did not stop there the high court justice ian callanan made recommendations to change the parole system he highlighted 23 areas that required improvement dangerous offenders in the past have been given the benefit of the doubt that they shouldn't have been that changes today one such recommendation was that the paper system used to keep track of parolees was replaced by an electronic database another was that the part-time parole board be replaced with a full-time one and that prisoners be required to prove they are at low risk of reoffending before they are released on bail in september that year it was revealed that bayley had lodged an appeal against his sentence through the victorian legal aid the appeal argued that the minimum non-parole period was too long and that he hadn't taken perverted pleasure in murdering jill which was what justice nettle had said in his sentencing in september both the defense and prosecution argued their cases on the 26th of september after less than 10 minutes of deliberations his appeal was dismissed more controversy arose in november that year when a senior police sergeant with victoria police gave a talk about homicide at a fundraiser for the prostate cancer foundation of australia during the talk he showed a photo of jill's body that had been taken at the crime scene the detective apologized following an outcry and stated that the photograph had only been briefly displayed and that he had the backing of jill's family to use it it also emerged he had done this several times before the police later apologized calling the mata an unfortunate error there was further controversy when a catholic priest gave a talk at a primary school in melbourne he told the children that had jill been more faith-filled she would have been at home in bed and not walking down the street at night he also said that she had been walking at 3 am which was not correct the vicar general of the catholic archdiocese of melbourne greg bennett told the 3aw radio station that the catholic church apologized for the comments made by the priest saying the churchill diocese certainly does not condone the comments made the reference to jill maher in particular was offensive and inappropriate and the people of victoria and ireland mourn her sad and tragic death he also spoke to the priest in question who acknowledged the offensiveness of his remarks and also apologized [Music] the suppression order that was in place during his trial had also had far-reaching consequences australian tv and radio presenter darren hinch was ordered to pay a fine of a hundred thousand dollars after he had attempted to reveal bayley's long rap sheet of sexual offences and rapes this was in breach of the suppression order he failed to pay the fine and therefore on the 17th of january 2014 the 69 year old began serving a 50-day prison sentence almost two years after he began his sentence for the rape and murder of jill marr bayley was found guilty of three more rapes committed before he had killed her these three trials were all held separately between 2014 and 2015. his victims were two sex workers and a dutch backpacker in the case of the backpacker he had pretended to be a good samaritan telling her she was being followed by a car in the bayside suburb of saint kilda as she walked home from the pub believing he was genuine she accepted his offer of a lift and got into his car he then drove her to an isolated spot where he brutally raped her an effort was issued and she was able to identify him from a photo board the survivors of all three rapes had come forward due to the high level of publicity following jill's abduction and killing by that point he had now been convicted of sexual offences against 12 different people the systems of the victoria police were once again in the firing line it emerged that bayley's dna had been obtained in 2001 after he had sexually assaulted another woman but this dna was not being held on the victoria police's dna database in april that year the victorian coroner announced plans to hold an inquest into jill's death were no longer going to go ahead her family welcomed this news saying all they wanted was closure the non-profit organisation legacy australia that helps provide support to service men and women and their families who were hurt or killed in action set up an online condolences book by july 2015 more than 3 000 people had signed it many saying they had never even met jill but felt compelled to offer their thoughts and prayers bailly was sentenced to a further 18 years in custody meaning his non-parole period was extended from 35 years to 43. the following month on the 25th of june he lodged an appeal against two out of the three convictions and the extended non-parole period in the summer of 2016 bailey lodged yet another appeal against one of his rape convictions and was given a three-year reduction to his sentence during the court proceedings bayley's lawyer explained that following psychological testing he was not deemed to suffer from psychopathy but rather he had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder his borderline personality disorder manifested itself in extreme and severe mood swings as well as poorly controlled anger he also said that as a child he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of an older female relative as well as physical abuse at the hands of his father despite his efforts to reduce his sentence he will be in his 80s before he can even be considered for parole and even if that happens a parole board must be satisfied that he is no longer a danger to the public in november 2020 bayley's mother broke her silence to give an interview about her son's case she explained that prior to jill's murder she tried to tell the police that she believed he was dangerous and that the police had failed to heed her warning and take the appropriate action well you're a very powerful voice to put to it because you're coming from the other side of it and i was about to say about your son that i thought it was important people know about his history and what he'd done because the system failed the sister he shouldn't have been on the streets and let me count you i went high and i told them that i had concerns and nobody listened to me nobody is parole officers if you didn't listen to me i went into the city to a to an office at the justice system in the justice system nobody listened to me this is before is this before he killed jill yes it is nobody listens we need to listen to these voices we need to listen to the victims voices just because they're not with us anymore doesn't mean they're less important than their voices shouldn't be heard [Music] jill's devastated widower tom left australia and returned to ireland in august 2013. in november the following year he made a trip back to australia to promote the white ribbon campaign aimed at stopping violence against women in june 2013 he gave an interview with abc and explained how he felt the justice system had let his wife down do you think that the justice system failed your wife and yourself absolutely of course it did i think the the primary role of a parole board should be to protect the innocent uh very secondary to that would be rehabilitation rehabilitation is still a thing we need in our justice system of course it is but it's not um a person like that they have to they have to do a risk assessment of and the number one priority that should be to protect the innocent and that's what they didn't do um in in his case and that's why jill's not here how did you feel when you found out that he had served two previous prison sentences for sexual assaults multiple sexual assaults threats to kill abductions the whole thing and for the last sentence he served less than half of the maximum penalty for 16 counts and five victims um i feel furious and i'm still furious whenever i hear anybody say it wherever i read it i'm i just my blood boils because it's it's uh it's it sends it sends a disturbing message um that this man is uh unrepentantly evil he's been led off too many times by our justice system and he's he's just um he he's obviously completely menace and it sends out a really dangerous message to uh to to society i think if you if you do this i mean i'm i'm aware that his his previous victims and in the previous case before jill were sex workers and i'll never be convinced that um that had nothing to do with the leniency of a sentence um which as i said sends a very disturbing message because if if if we say what it says to women is you know be careful what you do because if if if we don't like what you do you won't get justice and then what it says to people like bailey is not not don't rape but be careful who you rape he also wrote an essay for the white ribbon website called the danger of the monster myth tackling the stereotypes that many have about sex offenders part of the essay reads we cannot separate these cases from one another because doing so allows us to ignore the fact that all these crimes have exactly the same cause violent men and the silence of non-violent men we can only move past violence when we recognize how it is enabled and by attributing it to the mental illness of a singular human being we ignore its prevalence its root causes and the self-examination required to end the cycle male self-examination requires this courage and we cannot end the pattern of men's violence against women without consciously breaking our silence although nothing can ever be done to ease the pain that has been caused jill's friends and family are determined that her and her impact will never be forgotten tom has said that following the death of his wife the writings of maya angelou have been a source of peace and comfort with the following in particular resonating with him history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again [Music] you

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Length: 38min 55sec (2335 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021