Troy James O’Meara jailed for 20 years, eligible for parole in July 2022 for murder and rape of Linda Reed

Linda Reed’s mother has revealed the anguish she still feels 37 years after Troy James O’Meara raped and murdered her daughter. Today, he was jailed for his heinous crimes, but could walk free next year.

A double murderer, who raped and murdered Gold Coast woman Linda Reed 37 years ago, has been jailed for 20 years, but he will be eligible for parole in July, 2022.

Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin said Troy James O’Meara, who is already serving a life sentence for the 1985 murder of another woman, would have been in prison for 37 years by then.

Troy James O’Meara, 54, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on March 8 to the rape and murder of Ms Reed on December 13, 1983, when he was 17.

Troy James O'Meara has been jailed for 20 years for the murder and rape of Linda Reed. Picture: Dave Hunt

Speaking about Linda Reed’s murder, Justice Martin said: “The manner in which he treated her in the short time before her awful death is sufficient to demonstrate the vile intent he held at that time.’’

Justice Martin sentenced O’Meara as an adult, but he took into account that under current law he would be considered as a child, at age 17, but he was considered an adult in 1983.

Justice Martin said O’Meara, who has been serving a life sentence for the 1985 murder of Vanessa O’Brien, has been eligible for parole since August, 1999.

Linda Reed was raped and murdered by Troy James O’Meara in 1983.

The judge sentenced O’Meara to 20 years for Ms Reed’s murder and 10 years for rape, ordering that he be eligible for parole on July 11, 2022.

Justice Martin accepted that a life sentence for Ms Reed’s 1983 murder would be excessive, as O’Meara would have to serve another 15 years before being eligible for parole.

“A substantial head sentence though is required in order that the appalling nature of the conduct is recognised and the issues of deterrence, community denunciation and community protection are recognised, ’’ Justice Martin said.

The sentence has brought to an end to one of the state’s oldest cold case murder mysteries, after a remarkable DNA breakthrough in 2018.

Just 18 months after murdering Ms Reed, O’Meara raped and killed Vanessa O’Brien, 22, whose body was discovered at a north Brisbane refuse tip in 1985.

Nancy Fein, mother of Linda Reed, reacts outside the Supreme Court. Picture: Dan Peled

Ms Reed, who worked at a jewellery store at Pacific Fair, was last seen when she left work to eat her lunch in her car.

Three days later, police discovered Ms Reed’s abandoned vehicle in bushland at Helensvale.

Justice Martin sentenced O’Meara on the basis that he had determined to kill a woman and had threatened Ms Reed and compelled her to drive to a remote location.

He bound her hands behind her back, raped her and forced her to drive to a remote bushland area where he forced her face into mud with sufficient force that she inhaled mud or debris into her lungs.

Justice Martin found O’Meara then intentionally killed Ms Reed by drowning, smothering, suffocation, strangulation or a mixture of those acts.

In 2014, O’Meara’s fingerprints were matched with those found on a van belonging to a man who told police he had picked up a hitch-hiker in the vicinity of where Ms Reed’s body was found in 1983.

Robert Reed, former husband of Linda Reed, speaks to the media outside the Supreme Court as he is watched by her mother Nancy Fein (right). Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Outside court, an emotional Robert Reed, the husband of Linda Reed, thanked police cold case homicide team, the prosecution, witnesses who came forward and the media for making it known what had happened.

In a victim impact statement Mr Reed said no one would ever know the “pain and anguish” he suffered after her death, and as a sign of his love for Linda, he vowed never to have children with anyone else.

In a gut-wrenching victim impact statement tendered to the court, Linda’s mother Nancy Fein said she still visited her “beautiful and loving” daughter’s grave every week.

Ms Fein said she regretted that Linda’s father Oscar had not lived to see their daughter’s killer face justice.

The court heard that just 18 months after killing Ms Reed, O’Meara raped and murdered Ms O’Brien in ­startlingly similar circumstances.

After his arrest for Ms O’Brien’s murder, O’Meara told police he had a hate for women and said he had fully intended to go out and kill a woman at random.

He said he had raped Ms O’Brien because he wanted to degrade her before killing her.

In 2017, police sent vaginal DNA swabs taken from Ms Reed to a testing centre in New Zealand.

It found a mixed DNA profile likely contributed to by two to three people found it was 70 million times more likely to have originated from Linda Reed, her husband and O’Meara, than Mr and Mrs Reed and a different person.

O’Meara continued to deny his involvement, but in August 2018 was charged with Ms Reed’s rape and murder, almost 35 years after the crimes.

Originally published as Troy James O’Meara jailed for 20 years, eligible for parole in July 2022 for murder and rape of Linda Reed