Robert Adams sentenced to 20 years in jail for murder of Sydney nurse Mary Wallace
Updated
A 64-year-man has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison for the murder of Sydney nurse Mary Wallace more than 30 years ago.
Robert Adams was found guilty in the New South Wales Supreme Court in November for the 33-year-old nurse's murder in September 1983.
Today, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years.
Ms Wallace had met Adams at a bar in Crows Nest on Sydney's lower north shore.
She left the Alpine Inn with him, after he offered to give her a lift home.
They were seen driving towards Willoughby, but Ms Wallace was never seen again.
At the time, Adams told police he had sexual contact with Ms Wallace in his car but then fell asleep and when he woke, she was gone.
Her body has never been found, despite a search of bushland areas including the Lane Cove National Park.
The court heard during the judge-only trial that Adams strangled Ms Wallace while trying to rape her.
During sentencing today, Justice Richard Button said he did not believe the victim suffered for a long time before losing consciousness.
"Having said that, being strangled or suffocated to death must surely be a terrible way to die," Justice Button said.
"This offence against a young woman at the prime of her life, simply for sexual gratification of the offender cannot be assessed as anything other than extremely grave."
Justice Button outlined to the court that Ms Wallace's death was unintended.
"On the other hand, what was intended was an invasion of her sexual autonomy and it was attempted by an act obviously dangerous to life," he added.
Adams will be eligible for parole in June 2031, as the sentence was backdated to June 2016.
Ms Wallace's murder case was reopened by the Unsolved Homicide Team in 2008 and was the subject of a 2010 coronial inquest.
Adams was arrested in 2013 but pleaded not guilty to murder.
The trial heard DNA from two hairs found in the boot of Adam's car matched samples taken from the nurse's hairbrush.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, crows-nest-2065
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