Double murderer Steven James Hunter stabbed his friend Sarah Cafferkey 19 times then dumped her body in a wheelie bin "like rubbish" and covered it in cement.
Her mother Noelle Dickson is now haunted by thoughts of the gruesome attack every time she takes out the bins.
"Every fortnight I'm reminded of the fact that my daughter Sarah was put in a wheelie bin, encased with concrete to be thrown out like rubbish," she told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.
"Sarah was not a piece of rubbish.
"She was a beautiful, funny and caring human being loved by everyone who was privileged to be part of her life."
Prosecutors want Hunter jailed for life with no prospect of release for Ms Cafferkey's November 10 murder, committed nine days after his parole ended for kidnapping and assaulting a man.
Hunter himself told police after his arrest on November 20 that he should be locked up until he dies.
But the 47-year-old's lawyer Tim Marsh said his client's guilty plea, remorse and age meant he should be spared life in jail without parole.
Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC said Hunter was a remorseless murderer whose crime fell into the worst category of killing.
Mr Silbert said Ms Cafferkey had been drinking with Hunter at his Bacchus Marsh home when he found a syringe belonging to his ex-partner and made a disparaging comment about junkies.
Ms Cafferkey believed he had been talking about her and began arguing and pushing Hunter.
His response was to attack Ms Cafferkey with a hammer and stab her 19 times.
Hunter then went to elaborate lengths to hide his crime, including sending text messages to the 22-year-old's phone with one saying: "Give me a call when you want to catch up."
Mr Silbert said Hunter tried to conceal Ms Cafferkey's body by dumping it in the bin and covering it with concrete and lime powder.
"He engaged in a lengthy and elaborate ruse to cover up what he'd done," Mr Silbert said.
"There is no remorse your honour. This man is very sorry he got caught," Mr Silbert told Justice Kevin Bell.
Mr Marsh said the killing was not premeditated and Hunter had not set out to desecrate Ms Cafferkey's body, but to hide his crime.
He said Hunter had shown a degree of remorse and saved Ms Cafferkey's family the trauma of giving evidence through his guilty plea.
"He has the right to hope that one day he will have done enough to atone for what he's done," Mr Marsh said.
"This is a man who is prepared to say `I killed her, I disposed of her body, she did nothing to deserve this'."
Ms Cafferkey's father Adrian Cafferkey described his daughter as a "truly beautiful person with a loving soul".
He glared at Hunter seated in the dock and said the crime had handed his family a life sentence.
"Regardless of what happens next we are irrecoverably changed for the worst for the rest of our lives," he said.
"Our beautiful baby girl is gone."
Justice Bell will sentence Hunter, who murdered a co-worker Jacqueline Mathews in 1986, on a date to be fixed.
