By NATALIE GALLENTI
THE man who brutally murdered Bacchus Marsh resident Sarah Cafferkey and disposed of her body in a wheelie bin will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Steven James Hunter pleaded guilty to the murder which was described by Victorian Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bell as being “in the worst category of the worst offence in the criminal calendar”.
Hunter, 47, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole over Ms Cafferkey’s vicious killing on 10 November 2012, only days after his parole for another crime had expired.
The court heard Hunter, who has a long criminal history including the murder of schoolgirl Jacqueline Mathews in 1988, ‘snapped’ and brutally murdered Sarah with a hammer and a knife after the pair had become involved in an argument.
He stabbed Ms Cafferkey, 22, 19 times after beating her with a hammer and then drove around for several days with her body in the boot of his car, complaining to a friend that it was starting to smell, before putting it into a wheelie bin at a Point Cook address and pouring concrete on top of it.
Hunter then tried to conceal the murder by sending messages to the victim’s phone despite pleas from a female friend to disclose Ms Cafferkey’s whereabouts.
Upon sentencing Hunter Justice Bell said, “after anxious consideration I have concluded that I should not impose a minimum term despite your plea of guilty and the degree of remorse which you have expressed”.
Justice Bell said Hunter was a “serious violent offender” with “very poor” prospects of rehabilitation for the remainder of his life.
