- May 9, 2006
- 3,261
- 5,192
By Isabel Hayes
From:<CITE> AAP </CITE>
<CITE></CITE>May 17, 20132:12PM
IT was a terrible way to die.
Randomly selected by her murderous neighbour - a teenager she hardly knew who had been planning a such an attack for years - 24-year-old Indian student Tosha Thakkar was raped and strangled before her body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a Sydney canal.
In the months before the March 2011 attack, Daniel Stani-Reginald was living next door and spending most, if not all, of his spare time researching serial killers and rapists.
He read more than 9000 articles on cases like Dean Shillingsworth, the murdered toddler whose body was dumped in a suitcase, and the Yorkshire Ripper.
He was then aged 19.
Sentencing him to a maximum 45 year jail term on Friday, Justice Derek Price said Stani-Reginald had shown no capacity for empathy or any remorse for the cruel and premeditated crime.
<LI class="date-and-time last">
"There is documented evidence he had been planning similar offences for a period of years, gradually becoming more focused," Justice Price said as he set a non-parole period of 30 years.
The court heard how Stani-Reginald watched pornography involving the degradation of Indian women on the morning of the murder, before he cornered Ms Thakkar in her unit at the Croydon boarding house they both lived in.
He then raped her and strangled her with a cord as she struggled to remove it.
"Notwithstanding her efforts to survive, the offender strangled her, which was extremely cruel," Justice Price said.
"The last minutes of her life must have been horrifying. This was a terrible way for the deceased to die."
Stani-Reginald then bundled Ms Thakkar's body into a suitcase he had bought the previous month, ordered a cab and transported the suitcase to a canal at Meadowbank Park.
His "lack of empathy for the enormity of his crime" was evidenced by his calm manner in disposing of the body, Justice Price noted.
Stani-Reginald then went home, told Ms Thakkar's boyfriend he hadn't seen her and read an article entitled Beginnings of a Serial Killer.
Even as police milled around the boarding house, Stani-Reginald continued to research serial killers.
The Crown sought a life sentence, saying he was capable of seeking notoriety as a serial killer.
While other young men his age were going to college or learning a trade, Stani-Reginald "made a deliberate decision to school himself on how to become a serial rapist and murderer", crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, told his sentencing hearing last month.
But Justice Price found there was not enough evidence to prove Stani-Reginald had plans to kill again and he said a life sentence meant he would spend the next 60 years in jail.
However, he said Stani-Reginald was a danger to the community with a risk of reoffending.
The court heard his father murdered his mother when he was a child, but that there was no evidence he suffered from a mental illness.
Taking into account time already served, he will be eligible for parole in March 2041, aged 49.
Speaking outside court, Detective Sergeant Peter Rudens said it was one of the worst cases he had ever worked on.
Ms Thakkar's cousin, Pratik Thakkar, said she was a "happy girl".
Her only mistake was believing that everyone around her was a good person, he said.
Source: http://m.theaustralian.com.au/news/...dent-rape-murder/story-fn3dxiwe-1226645139779
From:<CITE> AAP </CITE>
<CITE></CITE>May 17, 20132:12PM
IT was a terrible way to die.
Randomly selected by her murderous neighbour - a teenager she hardly knew who had been planning a such an attack for years - 24-year-old Indian student Tosha Thakkar was raped and strangled before her body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a Sydney canal.
In the months before the March 2011 attack, Daniel Stani-Reginald was living next door and spending most, if not all, of his spare time researching serial killers and rapists.
He read more than 9000 articles on cases like Dean Shillingsworth, the murdered toddler whose body was dumped in a suitcase, and the Yorkshire Ripper.
He was then aged 19.
Sentencing him to a maximum 45 year jail term on Friday, Justice Derek Price said Stani-Reginald had shown no capacity for empathy or any remorse for the cruel and premeditated crime.
<LI class="date-and-time last">
"There is documented evidence he had been planning similar offences for a period of years, gradually becoming more focused," Justice Price said as he set a non-parole period of 30 years.
The court heard how Stani-Reginald watched pornography involving the degradation of Indian women on the morning of the murder, before he cornered Ms Thakkar in her unit at the Croydon boarding house they both lived in.
He then raped her and strangled her with a cord as she struggled to remove it.
"Notwithstanding her efforts to survive, the offender strangled her, which was extremely cruel," Justice Price said.
"The last minutes of her life must have been horrifying. This was a terrible way for the deceased to die."
Stani-Reginald then bundled Ms Thakkar's body into a suitcase he had bought the previous month, ordered a cab and transported the suitcase to a canal at Meadowbank Park.
His "lack of empathy for the enormity of his crime" was evidenced by his calm manner in disposing of the body, Justice Price noted.
Stani-Reginald then went home, told Ms Thakkar's boyfriend he hadn't seen her and read an article entitled Beginnings of a Serial Killer.
Even as police milled around the boarding house, Stani-Reginald continued to research serial killers.
The Crown sought a life sentence, saying he was capable of seeking notoriety as a serial killer.
While other young men his age were going to college or learning a trade, Stani-Reginald "made a deliberate decision to school himself on how to become a serial rapist and murderer", crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, told his sentencing hearing last month.
But Justice Price found there was not enough evidence to prove Stani-Reginald had plans to kill again and he said a life sentence meant he would spend the next 60 years in jail.
However, he said Stani-Reginald was a danger to the community with a risk of reoffending.
The court heard his father murdered his mother when he was a child, but that there was no evidence he suffered from a mental illness.
Taking into account time already served, he will be eligible for parole in March 2041, aged 49.
Speaking outside court, Detective Sergeant Peter Rudens said it was one of the worst cases he had ever worked on.
Ms Thakkar's cousin, Pratik Thakkar, said she was a "happy girl".
Her only mistake was believing that everyone around her was a good person, he said.
Source: http://m.theaustralian.com.au/news/...dent-rape-murder/story-fn3dxiwe-1226645139779