Sean Price laughs, yawns and repeatedly makes rude gestures in court
A MELBOURNE man jailed for stabbing a schoolgirl 49 times before raping another woman has been muted in court because of his behaviour.
GESTURING wildly and making rude hand signs, Melbourne schoolgirl killer and rapist Sean Price has asked to speak to the judge who will sentence him.
Price, 33, appeared in the County Court via video link on Monday when he repeatedly interrupted and disturbed his hearing with a barrage of poor behaviour including laughter as he mocked the court process.
He has pleaded guilty to breaching a 10-year supervision order when he raped a woman in a Christian bookshop, shortly after stabbing Melbourne schoolgirl Masa Vukotic 49 times in March 2015 when she was on her evening walk.
Defence barrister Dr Michael Fitzgerald told the plea hearing his client wanted to address the court before he is sentenced, a request Judge Meryl Sexton said she would consider.
As both sides gave submissions, Price played up in court, talking, yawning, flapping his arms and repeatedly making rude gestures, prompting Judge Sexton to order the video link audio be muted, before warning Price if his antics continued the link would be terminated.
Price was jailed for life in 2016 for the rape and murder and will be eligible for parole in 2053.
He was on bail and subject to the supervision order — because he was a registered sex offender — when he committed the rape.
He told police he raped a woman after the killing, because he knew he would be going to jail forever.
When he was sentenced, Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry described his crimes as “at the extremity of brutality”.
Prosecutor Peter Rose QC said Price’s plea of guilty to the breach came “as late as it can” for very serious offending.
Dr Fitzgerald accepted the breach was in the worst category but asked the judge to consider the value of the plea in saving court time.
Price spends his days isolated in custody talking to himself, confined to a cell 23 hours a day and occasionally shackled, Dr Fitzgerald said. The unusually harsh regime is for his own safety and due to his own behaviour in prison, the court was told.
Before the killing, Price’s mental state was deteriorating rapidly and he was reported to have paranoid schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, Dr Fitzgerald added.
Price will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.