JiveSync

IT was a dark and late night in Albury, it was autumn so the night air started to get a bit of a bite.

White and blue police tape was being wrapped around a cold concrete carpark, where the most evil of crimes had just taken place.

It was in the very early hours of March 23, 1996, when the news of a gruesome murder woke the sleepy town.

A blonde beauty, just 19-years-old, is lifeless in the carpark, wearing nothing but a pair of socks.

She had been propped against a wall, her throat slashed and what appeared to be human faeces, smeared across her stomach.

It has now been 20 years since this disturbing murder and while it remains an act of pure evil, the killer is done serving his sentence.

Kim Meredith had been working at one of the local hotels and stayed around town for a couple of drinks when she knocked off.

She heard a couple of her friends were hanging out at another bar, Sodens, so she decided to go and meet them — she never would have expected the danger that was lurking in the shadows.

Ms Meredith’s friends didn’t get to see her that night — instead, they became privy to the shocking and gruesome news of her murder.

Graham Mailes was trudging through Albury, blood on his shirt and a tiny plastic ATM card in his pocket.

On that card was the name Kim Meredith.

He had just fled the carpark where Ms Meredith’s body rested but left behind one crucial piece of evidence that would link him to the crime, his shoeprint.

Mailes, who was street smart but had an intellectual disability and a low IQ, attempted to use Ms Meredith’s card despite not knowing the PIN and a taxi driver told him to try again the next day.

Police officer Belinda Neil was one who woke to the news of Ms Meredith’s murder.

She took on the case, one that had a lasting effect on her, and she vividly remembers the young girl on a trolley in the hospital, blood tainting her pure, white skin.

In her book, Under Siege, Neil spoke about the depravity of what Mailes had done.

“Graham Mailes was a sinister individual, not a man anyone would like to see in a dark alley,” she said.

Soon after Mailes murdered Ms Meredith, he caught a train back to Forbes where he was from.

Ms Neil drove to the town in the Central West and later found Ms Meredith’s blue collared shirt nestled next to a pair of Mailes’ blue jeans — both drenched in blood.

Mailes had a girlfriend and when questioned by police, he used her as an alibi, but police still took his DNA.

“I recall him wincing when a couple of hairs were pulled out and I couldn’t help thinking about the pain inflicted upon Kim Meredith,” Ms Neil wrote in her book.

Mailes tried to pin the murder on his friend Tony but many of his police interviews differed and cracks started to show in his story.

He was found guilty in 2003, despite police taking his DNA and finding his bloodied clothes, there was still limited evidence.

He was slapped with a limiting term of 25 years.

A limiting term does not have a parole or non-parole period and Mailes could only stay in jail for 25 years, but could be released earlier.

In November last year it was discovered Mailes, now 42, had been released from prison.

He was then sent to a hospital to deal with mental health issues.

After her murder, Ms Meredith’s parents moved to Western Australia but Ms Meredith’s memory will always remain in Albury.

Fairfax Media reports a song about the young girl was released to mark the 20 years since her death and her mother June Meredith said it “lets people know that Kim was here”.

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