The review was primarily focused on whether to toughen bail laws for offenses relating to firearms and criminal associations, but was later extended after Speakman referred two additional cases for review. They included an alleged rape and a case in which a man was accused of violently attacking his pregnant partner.
The review was then expanded to include “the way bail laws provide for consideration of, or operate in relation to, sexual and domestic violence offenses” and the court’s “consideration of the views of victims”.
But the group did not make any recommendations in relation to those issues.
While the full review was never made public, at the time the Bail Act Monitoring Group admitted NSW Police were “of the view that overall the recommendations do not go far enough to address the issues identified through the course of the review”.
It is unclear whether the issues raised by NSW Police are related to bail in cases of alleged sexual or domestic violence offences. NSW Police declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Justice said the review undertaken in 2022 “involved consideration of a variety of issues in the specific context of the matters referred by the then attorney general”.
Minns on Wednesday said the advice from Kell would consider whether bail should ever be granted in cases of serious domestic violence allegations, as well as the local court registrars granting bail over serious offenses.
Ticehurst’s body was discovered at a home in Forbes just after 2am on Monday. Central West Police District crime manager Detective Inspector Jason Darcy described the crime scene as “brutal”.
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Her death has prompted significant anger in the Central Western town after it was revealed the man police have charged with her alleged murder, a former partner, Daniel Billings, had been released on bail a little over a fortnight earlier after being accused of sexually assaulting her.
Billings had been charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of stalking and harassment, two counts of damaging or destroying property and one count of animal cruelty.
Court records show Dubbo Local Court registrar L. Cusack placed him on an interim apprehended violence order and released him on $5000 bail on April 6. The bail decision was later continued by a magistrate in Parkes Local Court.
On Wednesday Minns conceded the use of local court registrars was an issue of “resourcing” for local courts in regional areas, particularly on matters heard on weekends.
He said it was a “very reasonable question” to ask whether registrars – who are not judicial officers – should be making bail decisions on serious alleged crimes.
“I have to say it’s really important when you’ve got decisions that need to be made in relation to bail for very serious offenses that it’s undertaken wherever possible by a member of the judiciary,” he said.
“These are weighty and important decisions for magistrates to make in obviously short periods of time. We want to make sure those members of the judiciary, wherever possible, are the ones making the decisions and bearing responsibility for the course of those decisions.”
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