The New South Wales government has ordered a review of the decisions of a court to bail a man facing charges of raping and stalking Molly Ticehurst, and who has subsequently been charged with her murder.
Led by one of the government’s top legal advisers, the review will also examine whether urgent bail law reform is needed after Daniel Billings was charged with the domestic violence murder of his 28-year-old ex-girlfriend.
The crown advocate, David Kell SC, is due to provide his advice to the government by the end of May.
Announcing the details of the review on Wednesday, NSW premier, Chris Minns said: “We have a duty of care to alleged victims.”
“The profound anger and loss felt by the family and friends of the alleged victim … is completely justifiable,” he said.
Ticehurst’s body was found in a home in Forbes in the state’s central west early on Monday morning. Police have described the alleged murder as “brutal”.
Billings, 29, was arrested about 100kms away in Fifield later that day. The Queensland man was charged with murder, breaching an apprehended violence order and failing to comply with bail conditions.
The alleged murder has prompted an outpouring of grief and anger after a court heard that Billings had earlier been released on bail on other charges. Those charges included three counts of sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of stalking and intimidating Ticehurst.
Minns said the government would look closely at resourcing issues that meant regional courts at times had to deal with bail application matters without a magistrate.
“We’re asking … registrars – maybe without any legal training – to make very serious decisions,” he said.
“It may be the case that we can rely more heavily on audio-visual links back to Sydney so as alleged offenders can get in front of a magistrate for a decision.”
The government would also assess whether a person charged with a serious domestic violence offence should ever be released on bail, Minns said.
Ticehurst’s father, Tony Ticehurst, said his daughter had been “loved by so many”, including the children she cared for as an early childhood educator.
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“The young kids, if they [saw] her downtown they’d run up to her and want to talk to her,” he told Nine News.
“I could say all the normal stuff that people say about how their daughter was beautiful, but Molly really was.”
Billings did not apply for bail when he faced the Orange local court on the murder charge for the first time on Tuesday.
Magistrate David Day also revoked Billings’ bail regarding the earlier charges.
The court heard that the earlier charges also included two counts of recklessly destroying a car window and a pedestal fan at her house and aggravated animal cruelty against her 12-week-old dachshund puppy.
Before the court appearance, Det Insp Jason Darcy said Billings and Ticehurst had been in a relationship.
Darcy had described the killing as “brutal”, adding it had left Ticehurst’s family devastated.
“Naturally, they’re just distraught,” he told reporters on Monday.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said he broadly supported the government’s bail review but its terms of reference should be as “exhaustive and expansive as possible”.
He said the review should consider the expansion of electronic monitoring, the possibility of psychiatric assessments in responding to more serious charges and who was responsible for making bail decisions.
The attorney general, Michael Daley, has also referred the matter for consideration by the state’s bail act monitoring group, whose members include police, government representatives and legal advocates.