A paroled rapist has been jailed for life in Australia after attacking and burning alive a woman of Maltese descent, a court has decided. 

Michael Cardamone bound and attacked Karen Chetcuti and burnt her in a crime described by the judge as "extraordinarily vicious and unprovoked".

The victim Karen Chetcuti.The victim Karen Chetcuti.

The court imposed the harshest sentence, justifying it for the "terror and suffering" Cardamone caused to his 49-year-old victim in January 2016.

Cardamone, 50, sedated with an animal tranquilliser, bound and gagged his victim, injected her with methamphetamine and battery acid, fractured her skull and then burnt her alive. Cardamone later drove over Ms Chetcuti in his car.

"Your conduct in relation to the murder of Ms Chetcuti was extraordinarily vicious, callous and thoroughly unprovoked," Justice Lex Lasry said.

"The crime you committed was quite simply horrifying, depraved and disgusting."

Cardamone was on parole for raping a 15-year-old girl at the time of the murder, which the court previously heard was motivated by his "sexual interest" in the mother of two.

The court said Ms Chetcuti must have gone through an extended period of suffering before her death and in all likelihood spent the hours she was conscious expecting to be murdered.

Her body was discovered by search teams near Lake Buffalo, Victoria five days after she went missing. She had been watering her vegetable garden on the night she was attacked.

 

 

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