According to a newly released court summary, on the night of September 21 last year, while Jill Meagher was out with friends in Brunswick, the accused Adrian Bayley was arguing with his girlfriend at Swanston St’s Lounge Bar about “jealousy and possessiveness”.
His girlfriend walked out and returned to the couple’s home in Coburg.
Bayley told police “I was just walking ahead of her and we’d already interacted on Sydney Rd and that’s when she rang her brother. She was actually telling me about her father.”
Jill Meagher’s husband, Tom sent Jill a text message from their home saying “Are you okay?” at 1:27am.
It was 1.38am when Bayley approached Jill Meagher and, as the statement conditions, “proceeded to drag her into a laneway on Hope St between Oven St and Sydney Rd, where he raped and strangled her”.
Bayley told detectives: “I actually apologised. I can’t imagine how she felt but I know how I felt. All I thought was, ‘What have I done?’ “
Bayley then left the body of the deceased in the laneway where he had raped her and returned to his home address. He then collected a shovel and his white Holden Astra.
At 1.47am, an anxious Tom Meagher sent his wife another text: “Answer me, I’m really worried,” and another at 2.07am: “Please pick up.”
The court heard Bayley returned to the laneway at 4.22am and put Ms Meagher’s body into the boot of the car.
He drove to Blackhill Rd, Gisborne South, where he buried Ms Meagher by the side of the road.
Bayley was driving home from Gisborne when his car ran out of petrol near the Calder Highway.
He managed to wave down driver Dayle Watkins, who drove him to a nearby service station. Bayley (at about 6am) filled a jerry can with petrol and Mr Watkins then drove him back to his vehicle.
