but prosecutors later agreed to accept a downgraded plea to manslaughter.<\/a><\/p>\nIt means Fleming, now 47, is likely to be released from prison in about a decade, his defence barrister Michael McGrath said.<\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19231a46c6026894de1313e7454ec9fc\")
<\/p>\n
Police believe the bin containing the body of Annette Brennan was picked up in Coolaroo. (ABC News: Natasha MacFarlane)<\/p>\n
In order to convict on a murder charge, prosecutors must be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that an accused person intended to kill their victim.<\/p>\n
Mr Glynn said the dumping of Ms Brennan’s body in a bin was an act of “grave disrespect”.<\/p>\n
“It’s an extremely callous act on his behalf,” he said.<\/p>\n
‘I just don’t like him,’ victim told friend<\/p>\n
Soon after Fleming moved into the sharehouse, Ms Brennan complained to friends that he stole her phone and that his behaviour was “strange”.<\/p>\n
The court heard she told a friend, “I don’t like him. I just don’t want him here”.<\/p>\n
Mr Glynn said the last confirmation of Ms Brennan being alive came just after midnight on July 1, 2024, when she made an online banking transaction.<\/p>\n
Later that morning, Fleming swapped the home’s green waste bin with a neighbour’s and placed Ms Brennan’s body inside.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/8dd8f1f327f852af278855a380cee36a\")
<\/p>\n
Annette Brennan’s body was discovered at a waste management facility in Melbourne’s north. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n
“He then thoroughly cleaned the house to destroy any evidence,” Mr Glynn said.<\/p>\n
A rubbish truck security camera captured Fleming watching from behind a curtain as the bin was emptied and the body transported to the tip.<\/p>\n
That night, Fleming messaged another person renting a room and said he was “looking to move in straight away”.<\/p>\n
Police found Fleming’s fingerprints on the neighbour’s bin, along with cleaning equipment in the share house.<\/p>\n
‘No-one should die like that’<\/p>\n
In court, Ms Brennan was remembered as a kind and loyal friend, who was supportive of English language students.<\/p>\n
“Annette enriched my life and those of many others,” one said, in a statement read to the court.<\/p>\n
Her long-term friend Nan Austin said the killing had come as a “huge shock”.<\/p>\n
“No-one should die like that and be stuffed in a wheelie bin as trash,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Annette](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/f10213344dd4a3692fb7d143f9ff9df4\")
<\/p>\n
Annette Brennan with members of the Brunswick Indonesian Uniting Church. (Supplied: Brunswick Indonesian Uniting Church)<\/p>\n
The court heard Fleming had shown no remorse for the killing, with his defence barrister Mr McGrath conceding his client’s actions were callous. He said Fleming’s prospects of rehabilitation were reasonable, at best.<\/p>\n
Fleming was serving a community corrections order at the time of the manslaughter. He had previously been convicted of exposing an emergency worker when he drove directly at officers and forced them to swerve out of the way in 2019.<\/p>\n
Fleming, who appeared from prison via video link, failed to show up to court on Monday and claimed corrections officers “didn’t come and get me” .<\/p>\n
However, Justice Christopher Beale said Fleming simply “refused” to get on the prison van to attend court.<\/p>\n
He warned Fleming that he would have to come to court in person to be sentenced on October 29.<\/p>\n
After the hearing ended, Fleming’s barrister Mr McGrath told him, “There’ll be no excuses on that date. You’ll need to hop on that bus.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A killer acted with “grave disrespect” when he ended his new housemate’s life and stuffed her body in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[114852,64,63,114853,1108,24275,44,6421],"class_list":{"0":"post-177454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-annette-brennan","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-body-in-bin","12":"tag-court","13":"tag-manslaughter","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-stephen-fleming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}