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We can finally reveal the details of Jill Meagher's killer's violent past.

Trigger warning: This post deals with rape and murder, and may be triggering for some readers.

Adrian Ernest Bayley, the man who raped and killed Irish ABC staffer Jill Meagher in 2012, was found guilty this week of attacking three more women.

And while Bayley’s name has been suppressed by a court order for the past eight months while these recent cases were heard, the media can now report on Bayley’s criminal history.

The full details are nothing short of horrifying — with the 43-year-old Melbourne man now having more than 20 convictions for rape, Fairfax Media reports.

Related content: This man’s story shows that courts still don’t consider rape a serious crime.

In fact, by the time he snatched Ms Meagher off Brunswick’s Sydney Road in September 2012, Bayley had already served a total of 11 years in prison for the rape and attempted rape of eight women.

Adrian Bayley. (Screenshot via ABC TV)

 

Bayley, a former apprentice pastry chef, was first jailed in 1991 for a minimum of three years for raping two teenagers and for attempting to rape another.

In 2001, the Coburg man was jailed for a minimum of eight years for raping five St Kilda sex workers over a six-month period in 2000, ABC News reports.

The most recent trials started in July 2014. One of those rapes, of a woman in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, took place in 2000, while two more rapes took place in Elwood and St Kilda in 2012, just months before Bayley raped and killed Jill Meagher.

Related content: Adrian Bayley has been found guilty of three more rapes.

Bayley, who was known as Adrian Edwards before he legally changed his name 15 years ago, pleaded not guilty to all three horrific attacks — but was yesterday found guilty.

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The first case

In the first case, heard in the County Court in July, Bayley — a father of four who was himself abused as a child– was found guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman in late 2000.

The victim, a teenage sex worker, had been reading a pamphlet about dangerous men to watch out for immediately before she was attacked by Bayley, Senior Crown Prosecutor Peter Rose QC told the court.

The woman was reading the newsletter when Bayley approached her on Grey Street, St Kilda, and asked if she wanted to make some money.

She climbed into Bayley’s car and, referring to the men in the pamphlet, told him that should could not believe “how many bad people are out there”, the court heard.

Bayley then punched his victim, asked: “do you know, I’m one of those bad guys?”, and drove to a secluded laneway in the nearby suburb of Elwood.

There, he repeatedly and violently raped her, the ABC reports.

When another car turned into the laneway, the victim cried for help — but when the car stopped, Bayley put his fingers down the back of the woman’s throat and threatened to kill her.

After the rape, the woman fled from his car. Years later, in 2012, read about Bayley’s attack on Jill Meagher and identified the man as her own attacker.

Adrian Bayley. (Supplied: Victorian County Court)

 

The second case

The second case, heard in the County Court in March, concerned the 2012 rape of a 25-year-old woman, also a sex worker, whom Bayley raped after inviting her into his car.

After picking the woman up, Bayley drove to a dead-end street, took off his belt, pinned her down and pressed hard against her throat, Senior Crown prosecutor Peter Rose QC told the court.

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“This is stupid, you need someone looking out for you,” he said as he was attacking her, adding that she should have a pimp looking out for her.

 

Mr Rose told the court Bayley had been identified by his victim by his tattoos and evidence of a crack she made in his windscreen while struggling against the attack, the ABC reports.

adrian bayley criminal record
Adrian Bayley’s driver’s licence, taken on July 19, 2000. (Photo: Victorian County Court)

 

The third case

The third case concerned Bayley’s rape of a 27-year-old Dutch backpacker as she was walking home from the Elephant and the Wheelbarrow pub in St Kilda.

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Bayley lured the woman into his car by saying another car was following her and offering her a lift home, ABC News reports.

Once the young tourist was in his car, Bayley stopped off at a secluded street, took her passport from her bra and raped her.

“He was very aggressive, and (she) believed if she let him get satisfaction, she might get out alive,” Mr Rose said of the assault.

The young woman eventually convinced him to take her back to her house, saying “the car wasn’t the place to do it” and that she was living alone, Mr Rose told the court.

But when they arrived, “she ran to the other end of the house where the other housemates were,” Mr Rose told the jury. “He took a few steps inside and said ‘hey, hey, come back’.”

Bayley then ran away, while his sobbing victim told her housemates about the attack, saying she’d feared for his life.

Jill Meagher, whom Adrian Bayley (right) killed in 2012.

 

The murder of Jill Meagher

Ms Meagher was snatched off Brunswick’s Sydney Road after a night out with friends on September 21, 2012.

Just eight minutes after leaving Etiquette bar on the same road, Ms Meagher was accosted by Bayley outside a formal dress shop on Melbourne’s Sydney Road.

Related content: Tom Meagher’s beautiful tribute to his wife, two years after her death.

Ms Meagher’s body was discovered six days later at Gisborne South.

Bayley pleaded guilty to killing Jill Meagher in 2012 and was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 35 years.

 If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.