The NSW premier is expected to announce a review into domestic violence-related bail laws after the alleged murder of a woman by her former partner in the central-west NSW community of Forbes.
Mourners trickled in at Forbes Anglican Church last night to reflect upon the life of 28-year-old mother and childcare worker Molly Ticehurst.
Her body was found at a home in Forbes in the early hours of Monday morning and her former partner Daniel Billings was later charged with her murder and for breaching an apprehended violence order.
On Tuesday, Orange Local Court heard Mr Billings was on bail for earlier charges, including rape and intimidation, when the alleged murder took place.
Premier Chris Minns said on Tuesday he had requested that NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley review the circumstances leading up to the alleged murder.
“A family has lost their daughter, and a little boy has lost his mother,” he said in a statement.
“Our justice system must protect the community from those who pose an unacceptable risk.”
Mr Minns said it was “crucial” to understand how the alleged events could have been able to occur.
“I can assure you that the NSW government is seeking all available information,” he said.
“The attorney-general is leading that inquiry and will share it with the people of this state as soon as it comes to hand.”
‘Women don’t feel safe’
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Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller said women in regional NSW were “not safe”.
“It is not safe for women to live in rural and regional NSW,” she told News Breakfast.
“We are not safe, we cannot hide like you can in the metropolitan areas. Everyone knows everyone and they know where everyone is.”
She said there was work to be done to get the judicial system right.
“I agree that we need to do something about educating men, or women, who are committing these terrible, terrible crimes against each other. It’s wrong. And certainly women are more vulnerable than men,” Cr Miller said.
“We really need to work on our men and have some kind of system that is going to teach them it’s very wrong to hurt a woman.”
Federal Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said the prevalence of violence against women in Australia was “a crisis”.
“Young women don’t feel safe, older women don’t feel safe,” she said.
“That’s 50 per cent of the population in this country who think about what it means to park your car in a dark space, what it means to walk by yourself, what it means to do anything by yourself these days and that’s just not acceptable.”
Senator Gallagher said governments must look at all possible options for keeping women safe.
“This is a crisis in this country and women don’t feel safe,” she said.
“You know, when we see it’s not safe to go out for a run, go shopping, you take action against violent perpetrators — you do all the right things and we still see these cases.”
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