Michelle Bright murder: Craig Henry Rumsby jailed after killing 17-year-old teenager in Gulgong, central western NSW, in February 1999

For two decades, the family of slain teenager Michelle Bright was tormented by thoughts of her killer being free.

On Monday morning, they finally saw Craig Henry Rumsby sentenced to at least 19 years’ jail for the murder of the 17-year-old in the early hours of February 27, 1999.

Rumsby attacked Ms Bright, who was a high school student, as she walked home after a friend’s birthday party in Gulgong, central western NSW.

Acting Justice Robert Hulme found Ms Bright likely died through strangulation or suffocation, a type of violence that ensures a victim will suffer.

It must have been ‘horrific and terrifying’ for Ms Bright, the judge said.

17-year-old high school student Michelle Bright (pictured) was murdered February 27, 1999 

‘The perpetrator must realise that the victim’s life is in their hands and thereby has a choice to desist at any point,’ Acting Justice Hulme told the NSW Supreme Court in Dubbo on Monday.

‘In this case – brutally and carelessly – the offender chose to continue until Ms Bright’s young body was lifeless.

‘This is a very grave example of the crime of murder.’

Her body was found in long grass on Barneys Reef Road three days after her death, less than two kilometres from where her family lived at the time.

Rumsby confessed to undercover police in 2020, but his defence team argued the admissions were unreliable.

In June, a jury found the 56-year-old former truck driver guilty of Ms Bright’s murder and of a terrifying attempted rape of another teenager on New Year’s Day 1998.

The judge sentenced Rumsby to at least seven-and-a-half years’ jail for the 1998 attempted rape.

‘The incident must have been utterly terrifying for (the woman),’ Acting Justice Hulme said.

‘The Crown correctly described the attack as ferocious.’

Craig Henry Rumsby was on Monday sentenced to at least 19 years’ jail for the murder of Ms Bright 

During a sentence hearing last week, Ms Bright’s family spoke of enduring 20 years without answers about what happened to ‘Shell’.

‘(We tried) to navigate life without Shell, while the monster that took her away from us continued to live their life,’ her brother Leslie told the court during a victim impact statement.

While Rumsby was free, he assaulted and harassed several young women.

Court documents show he was convicted of indecent assault and non-consensual sexual touching in 2014 and 2020 for groping and licking a retail worker and forcibly kissing a woman he approached on a train.

He also performed a sex act in a park in Sydney in 2019.

Rumsby committed those crimes while he was free on bonds after a long history of offensive behaviour, robbery, drink driving and assault.

For Ms Bright’s murder and the attempted rape, Rumsby will spend a total of at least 24 years in jail, with a maximum term of 32 years.

He will be eligible for parole in August 2044.