AN APOLOGY from the twin brother of the man who murdered Leeton school teacher Stephanie Scott has been rebuffed by the leader of a failed campaign to keep him in jail.
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Stanford, 25, walked free from jail on September 9 after serving 15 months for being an accessory after the fact of murder.
His twin brother, Vincent, has pleaded guilty to the murder of 26-year-old Miss Scott on April 5 last year, six days before her planned wedding day.
Vincent Stanford mailed Miss Scott’s engagement ring and another ring to his brother in Adelaide after the killing, and Marcus sold them to a jewellery shop for $705.
Cornered by a Channel 9 news crew in a caravan park on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia this week, Marcus Stanford apologised for his actions.
“I just want to say sorry for what I have done and for the hurt I’ve caused (Miss Scott’s) family,” Stanford said in his Dutch accent.
“For now, I hope I don’t cause any more trouble.
“I did a really stupid thing, and, unfortunately, I can’t take it back.”
Mark Norvall, who launched a change.org petition that attracted nearly 60,000 signatures demanding a leniency appeal against Stanford’s sentence, was not impressed by the apology.
“It’s too little too late, really,” Mr Norvall said.
“And hoping you are not going to do any more bad – hoping?
“It’s just not good enough.
“If you watch the video clip he says it all with a smug grin on his face, like (he is saying) I got away with it.”
Mr Norvall, a member of the Facebook page Australia Demands Real Justice for Stephanie Scott, said reaction on the page to Stanford’s apology had been “pretty wild”.
One of those who commented on the page said:
“This weasel doesn't care. He never will.
“The more I watch it the more it angers me.
“I personally hope you (Marcus Stanford) are hunted and tormented every day of your pathetic life.”
Vincent Stanford will be sentenced in the Supreme Court at Griffith next month.
Asked to comment about the murder, Stanford’s father Steve told Channel 9: “I don’t understand why Vincent did what he did, but he did that, and I’ve never, never asked my son Vincent why”.