Life term for Sean Price over brutal stabbing of Melbourne teen girl
The man charged with the murder of a 17-year-old Melbourne girl Masa Vukotic in a park a year ago has been sentenced to life in prison with 38 years behind bars.
Justice Lex Lasry handed down the sentence on Friday at the Victorian Supreme Court.
Sean Christian Price, 32, pleaded guilty to rape, robbery, attempted theft and the murder of the Canterbury Girls' Secondary College schoolgirl who he stabbed 49 times in a park near her Doncaster home on March 17.
Justice Lasry described the decision to let Price out on bail as a "catastrophic example of mismanagement".
"How you were permitted to be released into the community...was astonishing," he said.
Supreme Court packed with media, family and detectives ahead of the sentence of murderer & rapist Sean Price #7news pic.twitter.com/TqumVHVDSd
— Emily Angwin (@EmilyCAngwin) March 17, 2016
Price told police he had to kill the girl because she was dressed like a yuppie and talking to birds like Snow White, the Supreme Court has previously heard.
The following day he went on a crime spree that culminated in the violent rape of a woman in her workplace because he believed he was "going to jail forever".
The court heard that Price is now deemed to be a 'serious offender' after being convicted of threatening to kill a prison guard in January, which impacted his sentence.
Ms Vukotic was was walking in the park just 500 metres from home when she was brutally stabbed to death by Price, whom appears to have been completely unknown to her.
The teenager's body was found near a footbridge in Koonung Creek Linear Reserve in Stanton Street after neighbours heard screaming and saw a man fleeing the scene.
Shortly before 7pm, Masa's killer approached his unsuspecting victim, who was wearing headphones, from behind and launched a violent and apparent random attack that has left a close-knit community shocked and angry.
The court heard Price had the urge to kill for some time.
"I was planning this days before I went to Kew thinking of stabbing someone. I remember on the bus to that region; I was sitting next to these two Asian chicks; I was looking at them and just knew I was going to do something bad," Price said.
Price represented himself after firing his defence barrister in December last year.
He has prior convictions including sex offences against seven girls and women aged between 13 and 45 in 2002 and 2003.
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