Overview
- Daniel Billings pleaded guilty to the April 22, 2024 murder of Molly Ticehurst when he entered his plea at Forbes Local Court on November 14, 2025.
- The NSW Supreme Court vacated the planned June sentencing on Friday and relisted a two-day hearing for early September with a brief mention set for August so the prosecution can obtain its own expert report.
- A defence forensic psychiatrist concluded Billings suffered a severe form of depression that produced a mental impairment at the time of the killing and that the impairment may be 'substantial', a finding that could open a manslaughter pathway or be weighed at sentence.
- The Crown says Billings did not consent to a direct psychiatric interview so its expert must form an opinion from more than 1,000 pages of medical records, and limited expert availability has contributed to the multi-month delay.
- The delay has deepened distress for Ticehurst’s family and reignited public scrutiny of the bail and domestic-violence responses that preceded her death, and the court will also consider related offences such as property damage, animal cruelty and AVO breaches at sentencing.