Australia murderer of Jill Meagher guilty of more rapes

Jill Meagher was originally from Drogheda, County Louth

An Australian man jailed for the rape and murder of an Irish woman has been convicted of three more rapes.

Adrian Bayley was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 for killing Jill Meagher, an ABC Radio employee.

On Thursday, it was announced he had been found guilty of three more rapes, of a Dutch tourist and two sex workers.

The three trials were the subject of a suppression order to ensure fairness, but this was lifted after a verdict was returned in the third trial.

Bayley was described by a judge in 2013 as a "recidivist sex offender". He was on parole for previous rape convictions when he killed Ms Meagher.

Ms Meagher, originally from County Louth, was attacked in Melbourne in September 2012 as she walked home. Her body was discovered six days later buried on the outskirts of the city.

The new convictions relate to two attacks in 2012 and one in 2000.

All the women came forward after recognising Bayley during the investigation and subsequent court proceedings over the killing of Ms Meagher.

The defence argued that the women had wrongly identified Bayley because of his prominence in the media, but juries in three separate trials disagreed.