Vic man to be sentenced for second murder

Two-time killer Steven James Hunter will find out if he is to die in prison when he is sentenced for murdering Victorian woman Sarah Cafferkey

Steven James Hunter has murdered two young women and desecrated their bodies, kidnapped and assaulted a man and escaped from a prison.

He will find out if that rap sheet dating back 26 years will see him locked up for life when he is sentenced on Wednesday for murdering his friend Sarah Cafferkey.

Hunter, 47, stabbed Ms Cafferkey 19 times during an argument over drugs at his Bacchus Marsh home in November 2012.

He then dumped the 22-year-old's body in a wheelie bin and covered it with cement.

Prosecutors say he is a remorseless killer who should be jailed until he dies.

But Hunter's lawyer Tim Marsh has said his client's guilty plea, remorse and age should see him spared life in jail without parole.

Ms Cafferkey's mother Noelle Dickson told Hunter's plea hearing she pictures her daughter being thrown out like garbage whenever 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 said.

"She was a beautiful, funny and caring human being."

Hunter first killed in 1986, when he stabbed his work colleague Jacqueline Mathews for rejecting his sexual advances in a secluded car park.

He then doused her body in petrol and burned it beyond recognition.

He was convicted of her murder in 1988 and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment but temporarily escaped Pentridge Prison while serving that sentence.

He was given parole in 2000 and twice had his parole cancelled before being sentenced to six years jail for kidnapping and assaulting a man in 2005.

He murdered Ms Cafferkey nine days after his parole ended for the kidnapping charge.

Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC said the Victorian woman's murder fell into the worst category of killing.

But Mr Marsh said the killing was not premeditated and Hunter had not set out to desecrate Ms Cafferkey's body, rather to hide his crime.

Hunter will be sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court at 10.15am on Wednesday.


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Source: AAP


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