Judge gives Herrmann maximum sentence of 36 years for horrific rape and murder of Palestinian student in January

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Codey Herrmann, the man who raped and murdered the international student Aiia Maasarwe in Melbourne, has been jailed for at least 30 years.

Herrmann admitted repeatedly beating his 21-year-old victim with a metal pole, sexually assaulting her and setting her on fire in the horrific attack in January.

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“Women should be free to walk the streets alone without fear of being violently attacked by a stranger,” the supreme court justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said on Tuesday when sentencing Herrmann to a maximum 36-year prison term.

“You struck her with the clear intention of killing her,” Hollingworth told Herrmann. “You quickly subjected her to a savage attack.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A billboard showing the murdered exchange student Aiia Maasarwe in her home town of Baqa al-Gharbiya, north of Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Tessa Fox/EPA

“Aiia was physically small, unsuspecting and alone ... she had no opportunity to defend herself.”

She said Maasarwe was a “friendly, optimistic, kind young woman, who had her whole life in front of her”.

Members of Maasarwe’s family, including her father, Saeed, were in court to hear the sentencing and sobbed as details of the killing were recounted.

Prosecutors sought a life sentence for the “vicious and violent and depraved” attack by 21-year-old Herrmann, which showed a “complete and utter disregard for the humanity of the victim”.

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But Herrmann’s lawyer previously told the court the young man deserved some leniency because he had a personality disorder stemming from a severely traumatic childhood and this had warped his view of the world.

He may have done a monstrous thing but he was not a monster and had led a life of extraordinary disadvantage, Tim Marsh said.

Herrmann was sentenced to 36 years behind bars and must spend at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for release on parole.

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