‘They Failed To Protect Our Daughter’ – Family Of Murdered Jill Meagher To Take Legal Case Against State Of Victoria

The family of Irish woman Jill Meagher are reportedly set to take a legal case against the state of Victoria, claiming that the region failed to protect their daughter by letting her killer out on parole. The 29-year-old was raped and murdered by Adrian Bayley in her adopted home of Melbourne in September 2012 and is currently serving a life sentence for the crime. However, following his conviction, it emerged that Bayley had an extensive history of sexual attacks towards women and had not been returned to prison despite being convicted of assault while on parole in 2012. Bayley has now been found guilty on ten counts of rape, after a court this week convicted him of attacks on three more women. According to the Irish Times, Jill's parents George and Edith McKeon are now planning to join others whose relatives were killed by criminals either on parole or whose parole had just expired to take a legal case against the state of Victoria for their role in her death. "As a family, we have until now been very mindful not to make any statement or take any actions that might delay the outstanding criminal proceedings against Gillian's murderer. However now that these proceedings are completed we want to try and obtain closure to ensure that other families don't have to endure this trauma," said Mr McKeon. “Nothing can bring back our daughter, but as was clear from the Callinan report [that] the Victorian Parole Board failed to protect our daughter and many others in the community.” Edith McKeon also posted online to say that "We are all so devastated, knowing that Bayley should never have been out on the streets, it’s been cruelty for all of us. If a proper system had been working in Victoria, Gillian would be alive today”.