A stranger has pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of an Irish woman he attacked as she walked home from a bar in Australia's second-largest city.

The death of Jill Meagher shocked Melbourne. A week after she died last September, 30,000 people rallied against violence near the lane where she was strangled.

The 29-year-old had been drinking with colleagues and was walking home when she was attacked. She was born in Drogheda, Ireland, and held an administrative job at Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Adrian Ernest Bayley pleaded guilty to rape and murder in a Victoria state court today. The 41-year-old potentially faces life in prison.

Bayley lived near inner-suburban Brunswick where he randomly abducted Ms Meagher only a few hundred yards from the apartment she shared with her husband.

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