Laughter rang out through the popular Highlander Bar in Melbourne, Australia.
It was open-mic night for local comedians and Eurydice Dixon, 22, had taken the stage.
She was a regular at the Scottish-themed bar, and it was a great way for her to try out new material she was working on.
As always, her clever humour went down a storm.
Eurydice was a colourful character who loved an audience.
She combined her wit with a passion for women’s rights.
That night, June 12 2018, Eurydice talked about robots taking over the world, which meant there would finally be gender equality.
Eurydice wanted her comedy to get people thinking – and it did.
She’d had to grow up fast when her mum died from a drug overdose when Eurydice was just seven.
She’d been raised by her dad, Jeremy, and had embraced drama and theatre, loving being on stage.
Eurydice had performed regularly at venues across Melbourne and was really making a name for herself.
When she finished her slot that night, the crowd applauded.
Among them was her boyfriend, fellow comedian Tony Magnuson.
They’d been dating for just a few months.
At around 10.30pm, they left together.
They stopped at a shop and bought a Dr Pepper and a protein bar, before walking to Flinders Street station, where Tony jumped on a tram home and Eurydice blew him a kiss goodbye.
Eurydice then headed off towards the house where she lived with her dad and brother.
She was used to walking alone and enjoyed the quiet of the night.
But she had no idea that in the darkness there was a man stalking her.
Jaymes Todd had seen Eurydice at the station, and when she separated from Tony, he started to follow her.
Jaymes, 19, stayed far enough behind so she wouldn’t spot him, and hid behind objects to stay out of sight.
Then he’d hurry ahead and sit down, waiting for her to walk past him. This went on for over two miles.
A violent obsession
Jaymes appeared to be a normal teenager.
He lived at home with his parents and was training for a job in hospitality.
But he had secrets.
For over a year he’d been obsessed with watching pornography and scoured the internet to satisfy his growing lust for sexual violence.
His searches revealed an interest in ‘emo’ women – a style Eurydice was known for – and a horrific desire to watch content that featured rape.
Although Jaymes was clean and well dressed in public, the home he shared with his family was squalid.
There was rubbish piled outside, and inside was a mess.
That afternoon, he’d been out drinking and smoking drugs with friends.
In the darkness, Eurydice reached the city’s tranquil Princes Park, and she slipped off her shoes.
She loved to feel the grass between her toes as she walked.
After crossing the fields, she messaged Tony at around midnight.
‘I’m almost home HBU [how about you?]’.
She was less than a mile from home.
Jaymes had been following her for around an hour.
When Eurydice reached a football field, Jaymes struck.
He attacked her from behind and she fought back, scratching his face.
But he overpowered Eurydice by sitting on her chest.
Jaymes raped her and held down her windpipe until she choked to death.
Then he walked away into the night.
Jaymes watched more violent porn on his phone, had a sleep on a bench, then bought a pie and a coffee.
He tried to return to the scene, but police were already there.
In the early hours of 13 June, a member of the public had found Eurydice on his way back from work.
He’d called 911 and desperately tried to revive her with CPR, but it was too late.
When word of Eurydice’s murder was made public, the city was in shock.
Flowers were left at the scene and other comedians paid tribute to a lost talent and held events in her honour.
CCTV help
At home, Jaymes was busy searching Princes Park on Google to read more about his crime and coverage of his victim.
But then he started to get messages from a friend who said his face was all over the news.
CCTV footage of a man seen following Eurydice had been released by the police – it was clearly Jaymes.
He had no choice but to hand himself in.
At first, he denied attacking Eurydice and said the scratches on his face were from his cat.
Then after a few hours he confessed, but gave several different versions of what happened.
His DNA was found at the scene, so Jaymes was charged with the murder.
In November, he pleaded guilty.
Meanwhile, a vigil took place at Princes Park with the aim to ‘take it back’ from the horror that had happened there, and to restore it to the peaceful space the locals loved.
Over 10,000 people came.
At hearings this year, Jaymes Todd, now 20, yawned through proceedings.
His lawyers said he had autism and social problems that might have lead to his actions, but the judge said he was simply a sexual deviant who had no excuse for his crime.
The trial
Eurydice’s sister, Polly Cotton, cried as she spoke of her grief.
‘I want to see her, hear her, be with her, have coffee with her, but because she was murdered I will never see her again,’ she wept.
‘I wish regularly over the course of my day that I could have saved her… this has shattered and destroyed my family.’
Eurydice’s heartbroken boyfriend Tony said he suffers constant flashbacks and is plagued by the sound of screaming.
‘I will never look at the human race the same way again,’ he said.
Jaymes was diagnosed with sexual sadism disorder while in custody and it was agreed he was a threat to the public.
His obsession with violent rape had left an innocent woman dead.
In September this year, Justice Stephen Kaye sentenced Jaymes to life in prison wth a minimum of 35 years before being eligible for parole.
He called his crimes ‘totally and categorically evil’.
‘You waited until Eurydice was well into the dark reaches of Princes Park,’ he said.
‘The sheer terror that Eurydice must have experienced… is unimaginable.’
Her legacy
Outside court, Eurydice’s father showed incredible compassion in his statement, saying that a killer was off the streets and it was a terrible tragedy for all involved.
‘What I wish for Jaymes Todd, and what I believe Eurydice would wish, is that he gets better, and realises what he’s done,’ he said.
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