KILLER Vincent Stanford searched online about violent assaults including “bride rape” and “bride kidnapping” weeks before he attacked Stephanie Scott, court documents reveal.
Stanford, 25, began online searches for the vile content months before he raped and killed Ms Scott on April 8 last year, but the majority of ‘bride’ searches occurred while he was working casually at Leeton High School.
“The search histories from the offender’s phone and computer reveal the offender very regularly searched in relation to violent rape, violent sex, hard core porn, and murder.
He also conducts searches in relation to necrophilia and ‘necro rape’,” according to the agreed statement of facts.
Ms Scott was killed by “blunt force trauma” to the head after Stanford attacked her from behind and dragged her to a storeroom where he unleashed a furious assault on her, in which he later confessed to police “I went a little nuts”.
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The day before the murder he purchased a knife and handcuffs, and attempted to buy leg-cuffs. The items were intercepted by police after he had been arrested for Ms Scott’s murder.
Earlier in court the mother of Stephanie Scott called her daughter’s killer “pathetic” and “inept” and said she was haunted by her daughter’s final moments.
Merrilyn Scott said her daughter was only days away from beginning a “beautiful” life with fiance Aaron Leeson-Woolley when she was killed.
She told the Supreme Court in Griffith sentencing of Vincent Stanford, 25, she whispered “good night to my girl” in the dark at night, but then when she closed her eyes the nightmares began.
“Did she see the knife? Did she see his fists as he beat her to oblivion?” Mrs Scott said in court.
Mrs Scott said Stanford was “pathetic” and lived an “inept life” and had no right to take Stephanie’s life.
She said he waited at work for Stephanie and his evil plan “swung into action”.
“He should not have been there but such is his arrogance he did as he pleased.”
Mrs Scott said the family struggled that the last person Stephanie saw was a man she had only ever been “polite to”.
Mrs Scott said as a contract cleaner Stanford had access to at least six schools and he showed “many behaviours that should have raised red flags” before he went onto kill her daughter.
She spoke of the heartbreaking days after Stephanie’s charred remains were found in the national park and how the family gathered with Leeton locals for a picnic to celebrate her life on what was supposed to be her wedding day.
Instead of beginning her life journey with Mr Leeson-Woolley, she was “alone” in the morgue and about to begin a journey to the coroner at Glebe in Sydney.
Mrs Scott told of standing in a room “full of coffins” trying to pick one for her daughter who was at the height of her “happiness and loveliness”.
When they finally got her body back she was so damaged the “body bag wasn’t to be opened”, another blow for her loved ones who were desperate to see her one more time.
Ms Scott left her home in Leeton in the NSW Riverina region on Easter Sunday last year, interrupting her wedding preparations, so she could plan lessons for her English and drama students while she was on her honeymoon.
What was supposed to be her wedding day six days later, when friends and family who had gathered to watch her say “I do” to longtime partner Mr Leeson-Woolley, was instead used to celebrate her life at a picnic lunch full of yellow, her favourite colour.
An interview with Stanford has been played to the hearing in Griffith today.
In it he calmly tells a detective; “I went a little nuts” when asked what he did to Ms Scott.
He told the officer of trapping her and throwing her to the floor in a storeroom.
“I chucked her to the floor and beat her to death,” he said.
He said he used a knife — and there was so much blood, he later used a high pressure hose to wash it all away.
He said she was struggling and trying to yell as he grabbed her around the waist and covered her mouth.
Just moments before she had told him to have a “happy Easter”.
In the interview, police officers repeatedly asked him why he killed Ms Scott.
He said: “I had to kill her. I was not angry or anything. I was pretty emotionless, I just thought I had to kill her.”
Asked if he was angry towards her, he said no.
“I think I have mental problems — I didn’t feel angry, I just wanted to kill.”
He inflicted the fatal wound with a 40cm knife which he “hit” her in the “carotid artery”.
Stanford said he didn’t know why he kept Ms Scott’s bra. “Maybe as a souvenir,” he said.
“I had no reason to keep it.”
He has also told of watching her body burn in the Cocoparra National Park, 70km from Leeton, and visiting the scene afterwards to “make sure it was still there”.
The barrister representing Stanford, Janet Manuell SC, told Justice Robert Allan Hulme a psychiatrist who examined her client found he displayed “some characteristics” of sexual sadism disorder.
Another doctor however, while noting tendencies similar to sexual sadism, “didn’t go” as far as saying that was a condition Stanford suffered from.
He had been diagnosed as autism spectrum disorder as a child in the Netherlands, she said.
She said Stanford’s crimes were terrible and there was no attempt by him to “resile from that”.
Ms Manuell told the court Stanford showed “self hatred” that manifested itself as rage — usually to himself.
“But on occasion and in very significant ways towards others.”
In arguing against a life sentence, she said although there was no obvious expression of remorse, Stanford’s guilty pleas acknowledged the gravity of the crimes.
Ms Manuell noted he had no previous criminal convictions.
It was her hope he would receive counselling while he served his jail term as there were indications he could learn “self control”.
She submitted community expectations of Stanford’s crimes could be met with a long sentence, and not one of life in jail.
‘WANTED TO KILL AS A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD’
Crown prosecutor Lee Carr said Stanford had told of having thoughts of killing someone from when he was just seven and eight years old.
He read from a report in which Stanford confessed to having the homicidal feelings from a young age.
From then there was an incident when he was 12 when he injured a teacher in the Netherlands.
“He gets violent thoughts when people cause him distress,” Mr Carr said.
Mr Carr read from a psychological report which told of Stanford’s “entrenched anger and hatred”.
The report also said Stanford claimed he could not adapt to society.
Mr Carr told the court the murder was cold blooded and callous and said it was the Crown view it fell “squarely” in the range of a life sentence.
Stanford was sitting in court with his head down. He was just a few metres away from Ms Scott’s family, who have filled the public gallery.
Justice Hulme hoped to sentence Stanford later this week.
The hearing continues.
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