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Twin of teacher killer gets 15 months for helping brother after the crime

Marcus Stanford (centre) is due to be sentenced for helping cover Stephanie Scott's murder.

Marcus Stanford (centre) is due to be sentenced for helping cover Stephanie Scott's murder. Photo: AAP

The twin of the man who murdered NSW teacher Stephanie Scott has been jailed for at least 15 months for helping his brother after the crime.

Marcus Stanford, 25, sold two of Ms Scott’s rings for $705 at an Adelaide jewellery store, after his brother Vincent Stanford posted them to him along with the driving licence of the teacher, whom Vincent raped and killed on April 5 last year, a court heard this week.

In the NSW Supreme Court sitting in Leeton on Wednesday, Justice Robert Allan Hulme set a maximum of one year and three months with no parole for being an accessory after the fact for Marcus.

Marcus will be eligible for parole next month, having already served almost 14 months in prison.

According to Crown facts, school cleaner Vincent Stanford attacked Ms Scott at the Leeton High School in the NSW Riverina region on Easter Sunday, less than a week before she was due to be married.

While Ms Scott was ensuring lessons were in place ahead of her honeymoon, Vincent Stanford obtained a “rape kit” from his home.

He dragged the young teacher into a store room, sexually assaulting her and stabbing her in the neck, the facts said.

The killer later drove Ms Scott’s car to a national park and placed tree branches over her naked body, pouring petrol onto them and setting her alight.

He exchanged numerous SMS messages with his brother in South Australia, and posted Ms Scott’s rings and driver’s licence to him.

The rings, sold at an Adelaide jewellery store for $705, had become trophies, Ms Scott’s mother Merrilyn told the NSW Supreme Court, which was sitting in Leeton for Marcus Stanford’s sentence hearing.

“The vision of them being removed from Stephanie’s gentle, loving hands sickens us and fills us with despair,” she read from a victim impact statement.

Marcus Stanford has admitted being an accessory.

His brother has admitted murdering and raping Ms Scott and faces a sentence hearing in October.

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