The mother of a teenager who was fatally stabbed in the heart has spoken out about her heartbreaking memories of his final weeks, as well as her determination to change bail laws.<\/p>\n
Bailey Jones was just 18-years-old when he died during a house party on the NSW South Coast on December 9, 2022. <\/p>\n
Jones had been play fighting with his cousin Dominic Saliba, then 20, who then allegedly grabbed a knife and stabbed him. <\/p>\n
Saliba was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser sentence of manslaughter in a judge-alone trial in March 2025. <\/p>\n
He was later sentenced to seven years and nine months in jail.<\/p>\n
At the time of the stabbing, Saliba was serving an intensive corrections order (ICO) for armed robbery. An ICO is a jail sentence serviced in the community with varying conditions.<\/p>\n
Devastated by the loss of her son, Jones\u2019s mother Carol Micallef has revealed the last words he spoke to her along with her fight for better protection for the community.<\/p>\n
Heartbroken Mrs Micallef recalled her son saying \u201cI love you\u201d, as he left to hang out with his friends and cousin the night before his death.<\/p>\n
Just one month prior, Micallef detailed how her son had spoken of his desire to have a memorable life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis words to me only a month before his life was taken at 9.30pm before he went to bed, the words I live by now everyday since his passing I hear it so clearly, those words were: \u2018I\u2019m going to be something big one day I\u2019ll be known, it\u2019s huge and I will help so many. I\u2019ll make you proud mum\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 I never understood how or why he come up with this but it was not like my son to say things like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose words stuck and when he passed away I swore I would not let him be remembered for the kid who was killed in the way he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Determined to make her son\u2019s wishes a reality, Mrs Micallef is fighting for what she says is an \u201curgent need\u201d to overhaul how criminals serve sentences in the community, with a petition named Bailey\u2019s Law.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been gone three-and-a-half years and for three years I\u2019ve been pushing for Bailey\u2019s Law to not only honour him and keep his name alive but to commit to do everything I can to save others by tightening laws,\u201d Mrs Micallef said.<\/p>\n
She is pushing for tougher measures for those with a Community Correction Order (ICO) or a community corrections order (CCO), including random in-person checks from police and electronic ankle bracelet tracking. Stricter eligibility for violent and repeat offenders was also needed, as well as random drug and alcohol testing.<\/p>\n
Mrs Micallef\u2019s petition reads: \u201cHis case (Bailey\u2019s) reveals serious flaws in how ICOs are applied, particularly for violent and repeat offenders. <\/p>\n
\u201cPublic trust is eroding, and reoffending is rising. ICO must no longer be seen as a \u2018soft option\u2019, but as a tool of justice that protects the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Mrs Micallef took to Facebook to declare the petition has attracted over 20,000 signatures. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have officially done it, 20,000 signatures in less than four weeks. I cannot get this smile off my face \u2026 we all did this, NSW as a whole. <\/p>\n
\u201c20,000 signatures gets me to sit parliament so I am absolutely overwhelmed, so grateful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the voices now for NSW to have these laws tighter and to make our communities a safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of a teenager who was fatally stabbed in the heart has spoken out about her heartbreaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-765892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765892","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=765892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}