Eurydice Dixon’s killer Jaymes Todd jailed for life

For Jaymes Todd, the 50 minutes that he shadowed Eurydice Dixon were a cold and sadistic hunt.

Jaymes Todd is taken to a prison van from the Supreme Court in Victoria. Picture: AAP.

For Jaymes Todd, the 50 minutes that he shadowed Eurydice Dixon through the streets of Melbourne were a cold and sadistic hunt.

His violent rape and strangulation fantasy — the culmination of his obsession with rape porn, an ongoing search for snuff films and an ever-increasing desire to plumb the depths of depravity — grew as he stalked the aspiring comedian all the way from the city to Carlton’s Princes Park.

On Monday, Victorian Supreme Court judge Stephen Kaye sentenced Todd to life in prison, calling his actions "pure and unmitigated evil" and the darkest form of human thinking.

"The sheer terror which Eurydice must have experienced during those dreadful moments is unimaginable,” Justice Kaye said. “Her last moments on this earth must have been utterly horrifying for her. You inflicted that brutal assault, and took her life from her, by raping and murdering her in a most craven and sadistic manner.”

Eurydice Dixon’s body was found on a soccer field in Melbourne's inner north. Picture: Facebook

Justice Kaye handed Todd a life sentence with the possibility of applying for parole after 35 years, for the rape and murder that took place last June, after Dixon, a 22-year-old comedian, finished a gig at a CBD comedy club.

The judge ignored submissions, including from prosecutors, that Todd — now aged 20 — should be spared a life sentence, saying there must be an “unequivocal message” that his conduct be “met with the most severe of sentences, in which mercy plays no role.”

“I am satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that the offences of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and murder, were each motivated by the overwhelming urge that you had to enact the fantasy with which you had become obsessed,” Justice Kaye said.

“In other words, you intentionally killed Eurydice Dixon by choking her to death, in order to gratify your perverted and depraved sexual desires.

“As such, the offending by you was totally and categorically evil.”

The judge told Todd that, during the hour that he trailed Dixon, “you were entertaining powerful thoughts of enacting the violent fantasy to which you had become addicted, namely, the rape and strangulation to death of a female victim”.

Yet for his victim’s father, Jeremy Dixon, there was no anger.

He sat through the sentencing hearing, flanked by friends and family, and heard in detail the horrific acts inflicted on his daughter.

"I am very glad there's a killer off the streets," Mr Dixon said outside court.

"What I'd wish for Jaymes Todd — and what I believe Eurydice would wish — is that he gets better and comes to a full realisation and realises what he' done.

"I extend my sympathy, my own sincere sympathy, for those who love him. It's a terrible tragedy all around.”

His other with was for his daughter: "Eurydice herself should be remembered — as her friends will remember her — for her belief and her courage and for her kindness, not for her death."

On the night of her death, in Melbourne’s midwinter cold, there was warmth around Ms Dixon, from the blue flower in her hair to blowing a kiss to her boyfriend as they said goodbye outside Flinders Street Station.

After the show she had spent a little time with friends, and walked towards home — seemingly chatting to herself at times and unaware of what was lurking nearby.

Justice Kaye said in the 18 months leading up to the attack, Todd — who suffers from autism, ADHD and sexual sadism disorder — was increasingly watching videos depicting rape and “snuff porn”.

The judge found his “sick” fantasies distorted his proper human judgment “not your autism”.

Less than three weeks before the attack, Todd was searching for pornography showing women who dress in the same style of clothes worn by Dixon.

He had been drinking and smoking cannabis with friends for much of the afternoon and evening, before taking a train to the CBD and spotting Dixon.

He then followed her, at times hiding behind pillars or walking on the opposite side of the street, for 4.2km to Princes Park.

Todd was expressionless throughout the sentencing hearing, occasionally sipping from a cup of water in the dock.

He lowered his eyes, however, when Justice Kaye detailed the rape, attempted rape and sexual assault Todd had inflicted on Ms Dixon.

She had just sent a message to her boyfriend — “I’m nearly home. HBU (how about you)” — when Todd knocked Ms Dixon to the ground on a soccer pitch and sat on her chest before he raped her and then killed her.

“That fatal end to the rape was an inseparable and essential element of your fantasy,” Justice Kaye said. “Throughout the time in which you raped and sexually assaulted Eurydice, you had at least one hand on her throat.

“I am satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that, at the very latest, your intention to kill her by throttling her to death hardened, from forethought to specific intention, at the time at which you commenced the attack on Eurydice.”

Hours later, when he returned to his Broadmeadows home, Todd then searched the internet for “strangulation and rape porn”.