{"id":611739,"date":"2026-04-16T23:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611739\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:39:15","slug":"broome-rapist-remains-on-bail-for-five-months-despite-guilty-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611739\/","title":{"rendered":"Broome rapist remains on bail for five months despite guilty plea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community concerns have been raised after a man who raped a woman in Western Australia’s north remained on bail for five months, despite pleading guilty to the crime.<\/p>\n

Wayne Jeffrey Doherty, 66, was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on February 10 in the Perth District Court.<\/p>\n

The court heard Doherty raped a woman in August 2022.<\/p>\n

The charges sent reverberations through the Broome community, with Doherty pleading guilty in September 2025 to two charges of sexual penetration without consent.<\/p>\n

However, in the five months between Doherty pleading guilty and being sentenced, he remained on bail \u2014 much to the incredulity of some community members.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Wayne Jeffrey Doherty was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on February 10 in the Perth District Court. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

Concerns over bail decision<\/p>\n

A Broome woman, who the ABC has chosen not to name, said Doherty continued to work in the tourist town while on bail.<\/p>\n

“People voiced their concerns over being uncomfortable working with him, especially as everyone knew about the charges,” she said.<\/p>\n

A Broome man familiar with the situation, who the ABC has also chosen not to name, said he was “worried greatly”.<\/p>\n

“He [Doherty] made women feel uncomfortable,” he said.<\/p>\n

The man said the decision to release Doherty on bail was “unjust”, and “everyone was upset and angry”.<\/p>\n

A need to build trust<\/p>\n

Sexual Assault Legal Service WA senior lawyer Olivia Tan said the decision to grant a sexual offender bail depended on the particulars of a case, but posed a “real risk”.<\/p>\n

Ms Tan said victim survivors who chose to come forward faced barriers before, during and after reporting their experience.<\/p>\n

“Trust is an important pillar in improving justice system responses to sexual violence,” she said.<\/p>\n

For a person considering reporting their own experience, Ms Tan said hearing an offender had been released on bail would be “devastating”.<\/p>\n

“There is a big issue in that a lot of people who do decide to report, they don’t know what to expect from the process,” she said.<\/p>\n

Who gets bail?<\/p>\n

Meredith Blake, who teaches criminal law and procedure at the University of Western Australia, said there were a range of factors for a judicial officer to consider when granting bail.<\/p>\n

\"UWA<\/p>\n

Meredith Blake says judicial officers consider a range of factors when granting bail. (Supplied: UWA)<\/p>\n

These included the nature of the offence, character of the accused, residential arrangements, and risk of failing to appear in future court hearings.<\/p>\n

“When we look at bail decisions and query them, it is really about how the individual judicial officer has approached the decision based on the evidence before them,” she said.<\/p>\n

Unsentenced prisoners on remand account for 42 per cent of people in Australian prisons.<\/p>\n

Doherty served a total of two days in custody in the four-year period between his arrest and sentencing.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony Buti says bail decisions are independent judicial matters. (ABC News: Callum Liddelow)<\/p>\n

In a statement, WA Attorney-General Tony Buti said bail decisions were independent judicial matters made in accordance with the law and “specific circumstances of each case”.<\/p>\n

“While it would not be appropriate to comment on a decision of the court, I recognise the significant impact that criminal proceedings can have on victim survivors of sexual violence and am committed to improving the justice system’s response to these matters,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community concerns have been raised after a man who raped a woman in Western Australia’s north remained on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,17192,24513,13396,6671,85,297178,297179],"class_list":{"0":"post-611739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bail","11":"tag-broome","12":"tag-rape","13":"tag-sexual-assault","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wayne-doherty","16":"tag-wayne-jeffrey-doherty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}