Stephen Fleming: Tenant jailed for killing Annette Brennan and dumping her body in green waste bin
The reasons why a Melbourne ESL teacher was killed and dumped in a bin are still unknown as her tenant has been jailed, a court has heard.
Stephen Fleming, 47, returned to the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday morning to be sentenced to ten years in prison for the manslaughter of Annette Brennan, 67, on July 1 last year.
Wearing a gray tracksuit, with a shaved head, a mouse’s tail and a goatee, the man showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down.
Fleming’s sentence was delayed by an hour and a half after he refused to get on the transfer truck at his prison, the court heard.
Fleming was originally charged with murder days after Ms Brennan’s remains were found at a green waste site in Epping on July 3, but that charge was dropped in favor of a charge of manslaughter in August this year.
Summing up the facts of the case, Judge Christopher Beale said Fleming moved into Ms Brennan’s rented home in Coolaroo as a subtenant less than a month before her death and their interactions quickly became tense.
She told her friends that the rent was late, that he wasn’t working, that she yelled at him and took things from the refrigerator.
“He didn’t like you and wanted you out of the house,” Judge Beale said.
The judge also said Fleming had similarly complained about having Ms.
Judge Beale said that based on the available evidence he “cannot say exactly when, how or why you killed him”.
“The prosecution no longer alleges that you killed Ms.
The court heard that at around 10pm on July 1, a neighbor placed the green waste bin in the bin, and Fleming replaced it with another bin containing Ms Brennan’s remains some time after that.
The bin was collected around 8 a.m. the next day, and his body was found “among piles of waste” at the facility on July 3.
Her remains were severely damaged, and the pathologist could not determine whether they occurred before, during, or after death.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Brennan’s sister said she was outraged at being “treated as if she were rubbish”.
A friend of the murdered woman said: “Annette enriched my life and the life of many others… I hope Stephen Fleming realizes this.”
The court was told Fleming had a long criminal history, was mentally disabled and suffered from drug addiction.
He will be eligible for parole in July 2031 after serving seven years of his sentence.
