Shanae Brooke Edwards’ killer blames ‘devil’ inside him for her brutal death

The man who brutally murdered Melbourne woman Shanae Brooke Edwards while she was hiking in Georgia has told a court he could not overcome the devil inside him.

The killer of Melbourne woman Shanae Brooke Edwards said the devil was inside him when he took her life.

New details about the savage crime have emerged in court, including how confessed killer Rafael Mursakulov, 33, planned to burn Ms Edwards’ body and threatened to kill his nephew if his brother reported him to police.

“I apologise to all the women … that day, there was more devil in me than God,” Mursakulov told a Tbilisi court.

Melbourne woman Shanae Brooke Edwards was murdered in Georgia.

Ms Edwards was murdered on July 30 last year while hiking on Mount Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The 31-year-old, raised in Warrnambool, had been working as an English teacher in Tbilisi at the time.

She was confronted by Mursakulov while on the phone to a friend and could be heard screaming “take your hands off me” before he attacked her with a knife and strangled her to death.

Mursakulov, a political activist for the country’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, this week pleaded guilty to Ms Edwards’ murder, saying he was deeply sorry but “could not stop myself that day”.

Rafael Mursakulov confessed to killing Shanae Brooke Edwards in Tbilisi in July 2021. Picture: Georgian Service

“I was disturbed. I do not know what happened, but it happened. I apologise to this country, to the people. I apologise to the family of that person. This is a loss that I cannot compensate,” he told the court, according to European news organisation News Front.

“Just forgive me. I will not appeal, I will stand to the end.”

The court heard Mursakulov intended to burn Ms Edwards’ body to conceal his crime.

It was reported he dragged her body from the murder scene to the edge of a gorge and covered it with leaves – however it was found by search crews the next day.

The court also heard Mursakulov confessed to killing Ms Edwards’ to his brother, whose son he threatened to kill if he went to police.

Rafael Mursakulov confessed to his brother that he had killed Shanae Edwards.

Mursakulov’s defence lawyer told the court his client had mental issues and was overcome by evil on the mountain.

“His explanation was that at that moment the greatest devil awoke in him, who could not (be) overcome,” the lawyer said, according Georgian news service, Radio Tavisupleba.

Mursakulov is facing the potential of life imprisonment for Ms Edwards’ murder.

Her family previously asked the court to show no mercy in the case, describing the sorrow and grief they feel as “unbearable”.

Mursakulov’s sentence will be handed down next month.