Jaymes Todd will spend at least 35 years behind bars

The killer of Melbourne comedian Eurydice Dixon will spend at least 35 years in jail after losing an appeal against his life sentence.

That is the minimum term Jaymes Todd, 20, must serve before being eligible for parole for what appeal judges called an ‘unspeakably loathsome and cruel’ crime.

In June 2018, he followed Ms Dixon from the city centre, where she had performed in a comedy gig, to the inner suburbs, where he raped and murdered her on a sports field.

Three  Court of Appeal judges rejected claims by Todd's lawyers that the sentence was disproportionate – restating the original trial judge’s descriptions of the attack as ‘horrifying, predatory, brutal, premeditated and striking at the very heart of the most basic values of a decent civilised society,’ among others.

Chief Justice Anne Ferguson said: ‘A woman should be able to walk home after a night out without any fear of being harmed. Her heart should not have to skip a beat when she hears approaching steps from behind.’

Their ruling noted that Todd had persistent fantasies about ‘coercive violent sex involving suffering to a female victim’ – a 'sadism disorder' for which there is no treatment.

Read the verdict in full, and watch Justice Ferguson’s remarks on the ABC News website.

Published: 12 Mar 2020