When a woman walking to a bus stop in Hunters Hill felt someone bump into her, she instinctively apologised.
The 30-year-old, who was listening to music through headphones after she finished a babysitting shift on Sydney's north shore, thought she had accidentally walked into the path of a jogger.
But when the man in a fluro work vest kept following her in the early evening of June 19, 2013, she grew scared and quickly went to a nearby bus shelter.
The man was Terrence John Leary, who had been released on parole 10 months earlier, having served 22½ years for bashing a teenager to death with a hammer after he broke into her family's Kenthurst house in 1990.
According to documents tendered to the NSW District Court on Monday relating to the 2013 attack, Leary had earlier finished a shift as a packing hand at a meat processing factory, where colleagues noticed his usually "happy disposition" was replaced by depression and frustration.
Leary, who was living with his parents in Hunters Hill, parked his car near the bus stop, followed the woman, and put his arm around her neck, making it hard for her to breathe.
He dragged her behind the shelter, pulled her jeans down to her ankles - snapping her belt - and stabbed her.
Leary, a short balding man, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse with the woman.
The 48-year-old, who was wearing a black suit and colourful tie in court, also pleaded guilty to resisting police, and admitted other charges including assaulting police.
An agreed set of facts said Leary continually told the screaming victim to be quiet, as he punched her in the face, dragged her to the ground by her hair and said "take your pants off".
The woman offered Leary her phone, bag and her money, saying "It's OK I know what you want, I will help you", in an effort to calm him down.
When Leary told the woman not to look at his face, she touched his cheek, and he bit down on her left index finger.
A man driving past about 6pm saw Leary's bright vest and the woman kicking her legs and he called police.
Leary then punched several police officers, who used capsicum spray and a Taser to subdue him.
Authorities revoked his parole and the incident raised questions about his release, prompting an inquiry by former Supreme Court judge James Wood.
Days into a trial in the 1990s, Leary confessed to murdering 17-year-old Vanessa Hoson, saying she refused to have sex with him after he broke into her bedroom.
He was sentenced to a non-parole period of 15 years, with a maximum term of 24 years.
The Hoson family had pleaded with the State Parole Authority to keep Leary behind bars in 2012, after his earlier bids to be released were denied.
"This seems almost like you expect him to slip up and will then have the opportunity to put him in prison again," Ms Hoson's sister Fiona wrote to the hearing in August 2012.
"It is a nightmare to us that his slip-up will cause the same devastation to another family as we have suffered, and are still suffering."
Leary will be sentenced on October 2.
