Sean Price sentenced to life for brutally stabbing Melbourne teenager

The man accused of murdering 17-year-old Melbourne girl Masa Vukotic in a park a year ago has been sentenced to life in prison with 38 years in prison.

Justice Lex Lasry handed down the sentence on Friday in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Sean Christian Price, 32, pleaded guilty to rape, robbery, attempted robbery and the murder of the Canterbury Girls' Secondary College schoolgirl who he stabbed 49 times in a park near her Doncaster home the 17th of March.

Judge Lasry described the decision to release Price on bail as a “catastrophic example of mismanagement”.

“The way you were allowed to be released into the community… was astonishing,” he said.

Price told police he had to kill the girl because she was dressed like a yuppie and talked to birds like Snow White, the Supreme Court has previously heard.

The next day, he embarked on a crime spree that culminated in the violent rape of a woman at his workplace because he thought he was “going to jail forever.”

The court heard that Price is now considered a “serious offender” after being found guilty of threatening to kill a prison guard in January, which impacted on his sentence.

Ms Vukotic was walking in the park just 500 meters from her home when she was brutally stabbed to death by Price, who appears to be a complete stranger to her.

The teenager's body was found near a footbridge at the Koonung Creek Linear Reserve on Stanton Street after neighbors heard screams and saw a man fleeing the scene.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Masa's killer approached his unsuspecting victim, who was wearing headphones, from behind and launched a violent and seemingly random attack that shocked and angered a close-knit community.

The court heard Price had wanted to kill for some time.

“I had planned this a few days before I went to Kew thinking I would stab someone. I remember on the bus to that area; I was sitting next to these two Asian girls; I looked at them and I knew I 'Was going to do something bad,'” Price said.

Price represented himself after firing his lawyer in December last year.

He was previously convicted of sexual offenses against seven girls and women aged 13 to 45 in 2002 and 2003.

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