Seven years’ jail for man who killed Annette Brennan and stuffed her body in a bin

3 months ago 23

A man who killed his new housemate and stuffed her body into a wheelie bin just weeks after moving into her home has been jailed for seven years for the “extremely callous act”.

Family and friends of slain teacher Annette Brennan waited outside the Supreme Court to face her killer, who had refused to board the prison bus.

Investigators believe Annette Brennan’s body was inside a bin that was picked up outside a Coolaroo property.

It was the second time Stephen Fleming, 48, had tried to avoid Brennan’s loved ones after he killed her and bundled her body into a green waste bin outside her home in Hilgay Street, Coolaroo, in Melbourne’s north.

The pair had lived together for only a few weeks after the English tutor advertised two spare rooms on the internet.

By the time waste workers at an Epping recycling facility made the grim discovery, Brennan’s body was so badly mutilated, her cause of death was unable to be determined.

News of her death shocked and devastated former students and members of her church, who remembered her as a much-loved teacher who had become a “second mum” to many people she taught.

“The available evidence does not enable me to say exactly when, how or why you killed her,” Justice Christopher Beale.

On Thursday, prison staff eventually got Fleming into a second prison van, arriving at the Supreme Court two hours late.

Pale and anxious, he kept his eyes on the ground as he was led into the courtroom and past his victim’s loved ones seated nearby.

The court heard Brennan, who taught English to overseas arrivals in Australia, had moved into the three-bedroom, single-storey brick rental on Hilgay Street two months before her death.

Beale said Brennan had expressed frustration about Fleming in the days before he killed her, including his failure to pay bond and rent, smoking in the house, rearranging the house, putting a lock on his bedroom door and stealing her phone.

Brennan told her friend Nanette Austin over coffee that she wanted Fleming to move out after he failed to pay rent for two weeks.

Two weeks later, Fleming contacted their landlord to ask for Brennan to be removed from the lease and for him to be added to it.

“You were in communications with the owner’s husband behind Ms Brennan’s back, endeavouring to take over the lease. You wrote, ‘I want to sign a lease with you if you agree. Annette doesn’t do any cleaning or repairs and doesn’t even work’,” Beale said.

Fleming killed Brennan on July 1, 2024, and put her body in a bin before cleaning the inside of their share house to destroy evidence and moving into another home about three days later.

Stephen Fleming has pleaded guilty to killing a 67-year-old English teacher last year.

He swapped bins with a neighbour and left Brennan’s body outside another property on bin day.

His DNA was later found on the handles of the bin and on gloves found inside it.

“The offender knew or was aware of what would happen to the deceased’s body when he disposed of it. It was a very grave disrespect of that body,” Crown prosecutor David Glynn earlier told the court.

“It’s an extremely callous act, literally shocking.”

Fleming has a criminal history, including reckless conduct involving police, and was on a community corrections order at the time.

He was initially charged with murder before the prosecution accepted a plea of guilty to a charge of manslaughter.

“Annette’s death was a huge shock ... no one should die like that, stuffed in a wheelie bin as trash,” Austin said in a statement to the court at an earlier hearing.

“Her death has left me devastated and grief-stricken. I have many unanswered questions,” Sally Jamieson, another friend of 14 years, said in a statement to the court.

Beale sentenced Fleming to 10 years’ jail with a non-parole period of seven years.

With time already served on remand, he will be eligible for release in six years.

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