A man has appeared in court in Australia charged with raping and murdering Jill Meagher in Melbourne.
The 29-year-old from Drogheda had been missing since last weekend until her body was found in a shallow grave outside the city yesterday.
She was found yesterday off a dirt road about 50 kilometres northwest of central Melbourne.
41-year-old Adrian Ernest-Bayley appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court.
He was formally charged yesterday at the St. Kilda Road police station in the city with 1 count of murder and 1 count of rape.
He will now face a committal hearing on January 18th next.
He reportedly led police to her body.
She was last seen at 1.40am on Saturday morning on the footage on Sydney Road in Brunswick around 5 minutes from her home.
Her handbag was located in a laneway off Hope Street on Monday morning.
In a statement by her family yesterday they said “We are devastated. We are heartbroken. She was the first grand-child my mother had and her aunts, uncles and cousins are powerless to describe their loss”.
Jill’s husband Tom Meagher decided to address the media outside the hearing in Melbourne.
A colleague of Jill has paid tribute to her on air today.
John Faine opened his show on ABC talking about how a normal night out for workmates had ended with tragedy.
Related stories
href="http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/news/jill-meagher-family-devastated-as-body-recovered/">Jill Meagher family “devastated” as body recovered
href="http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/news/australian-police-searching-for-body-of-jill-meagher/">Australian police searching for body of Jill Meagher
href="http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/news/man-arrested-over-jill-meagher-disappearance/">Man expected to be charged with rape, murder of Jill Meagher
