{"id":878348,"date":"2026-09-03T08:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878348\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T08:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:20:23","slug":"family-of-murder-victim-molly-ticehurst-shares-how-her-death-destroyed-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878348\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of murder victim Molly Ticehurst shares how her death ‘destroyed’ them"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of a murdered childcare worker has told his daughter’s killer: “I hope that every night Molly’s screams keep you awake.”<\/p>\n

Warning: This article includes descriptions of domestic violence and murder.<\/p>\n

Victim impact statements from members of Molly Ticehurst’s family are today being delivered in the NSW Supreme Court at Orange, some 100 kilometres east of where she was found dead in her Forbes home two years ago.<\/p>\n

In November last year, Daniel Billings pleaded guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend after he broke into her house late at night on April 21, 2024 and stabbed her 15 times.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Supporters of Molly Ticehurst arrive at the Supreme Court in Orange on Thursday morning. (ABC Central West: Hamish Cole)<\/p>\n

He also admitted to killing a pet dachshund with a hammer and breaching an apprehended violence order.<\/p>\n

Billings was out on bail at the time of her murder, a fact that sparked a nationwide outcry over bail laws for domestic violence offenders.<\/p>\n

Ms Ticehurst’s father, Tony Ticehurst, told the court that “no sentence will ever be long enough”.<\/p>\n

“I hope that every night Molly’s screams keep you awake,” he said.\"Man<\/p>\n

Tony Ticehurst (left), Molly Ticehurst’s father, arriving at the Supreme Court in Orange. (ABC News: Hamish Cole)<\/p>\n

“When she died, a part of me died with her.<\/p>\n

“I am no longer just Tony, people look at me and say, ‘That’s the woman who was killed’s father.'”<\/p>\n

Mr Ticehurst told the court that he would be forever proud that “Molly’s Law” had been introduced in the wake of his daughter’s death.<\/p>\n

Family and domestic violence support services:NSW Domestic Violence Line<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a01800 656 463Lifeline<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0131 114Men’s Referral Service<\/a>\u00a0on 1300 766 491Mensline<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a01300 789 978Full Stop Australia<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a01800 385 578Emergency services on Triple Zero (000) if you need immediate care<\/p>\n

In June 2024, NSW passed a law making it mandatory for electronic monitoring devices<\/a> to be worn by people who were on bail for certain DV charges.<\/p>\n

Those accused of serious domestic violence offences must also now demonstrate why they should be given bail and court registrars are no longer allowed to make bail decisions.<\/p>\n

“I still ask myself why it took Molly’s life for this to happen,” Mr Ticehurst said.<\/p>\n

“I will grieve the loss of you for the rest of my life.”<\/p>\n

Son carries Molly’s ashes with him<\/p>\n

Ms Ticehurst’s cousin, Melissa Shaw, told the court her death had “destroyed” each member of her family in their own way.<\/p>\n

“It is heartbreaking to see Molly’s only child take the urn with her ashes wherever he can,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Molly should never have been a headline.<\/p>\n

“I never want my children to forget her \u2026 but with that comes a reminder that she will never come home.”<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Daniel Billings pleaded guilty to murdering Molly Ticehurst. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Billings arrived at the court on Thursday morning in a police van wearing a black suit with a white shirt, white trainers, and his dreadlocked hair tied back off his face.<\/p>\n

He entered the courtroom and looked around the space, which was packed with Ms Ticehurst’s family members, journalists and supporters wearing T-shirts inscribed with messages such as “#HernameisMolly”.<\/p>\n

Supporters of Ms Ticehurst were staring straight ahead while her mother cradled her head in her hand.<\/p>\n

Family friend Gaby Shepherd read a statement by Molly’s mother, Kate Ticehurst, who said her sleepless nights were “too numerous to count”.<\/p>\n

“I would like to know the reason he did this. Why?” her statement said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A police van carrying Daniel Billings arrives at the Supreme Court in Orange on Thursday morning. (ABC Central West: Hamish Cole)<\/p>\n

“Molly would light up a room with her contagious laugh and her joyful personality.”<\/p>\n

A short victim impact statement written by Molly’s son was read out by a family member.<\/p>\n

“I really miss my mum because I miss going on holidays and mowing the lawn,” they said.<\/p>\n

“I miss watching Ice Age in her room.<\/p>\n

“I love my mum very much.”Mental health concerns<\/p>\n

Forensic psychiatrist Olav Nielssen wrote a report for the defence assessing Billings’s mental health at the time of the murder.<\/p>\n

He consulted with Billings three times via video from the supermax section of the Goulburn Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The court heard Molly Ticehurst’s son missed watching Ice Age and going on holidays with her. (Supplied: Gofundme)<\/p>\n

Mr Nielssen told the court that several videos the offender made in the hours before Ms Ticehurst’s death showed he was experiencing a depressive illness.<\/p>\n

“The videos \u2026 were a suicide note,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The best pointer to the severity of his condition is that he was contemplating suicide to the extent his friends arranged a kind of suicide watch for him.”<\/p>\n

Mr Nielssen said Billings had a “difficult” background which included his father’s death when he was 12 years old, a physically abusive mother and substance misuse.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Community members lay flowers outside Ms Ticehurst’s home after she was found murdered in April 2024. (ABC News: Olivia Ralph)<\/p>\n

He told the court the severity of Billings’s depression amounted to a form of impairment, which affected his perception of events, and likely influenced his anger at the time.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Lee Carr SC challenged Mr Nielssen’s assessment of Billings’s state of mind, and used examples such as spending the night before the murder pig hunting with friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Nielssen told the court depressive symptoms can fluctuate, but maintained they affected his interpretation of events.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the crown engaged forensic psychiatrist David Greenberg to write his own report about Billings’s mental health.<\/p>\n

\"Molly<\/p>\n

Molly Ticehurst was a childcare worker at the Forbes Learning Ladder. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Professor Greenberg was not able to interview the offender, and instead formed his opinion from the brief of evidence, Justice Health notes, and Dr Nielssen’s review.<\/p>\n

He agreed Billings had a form of chronic depression, but not as severe as his counterpart suggested.<\/p>\n

“In my opinion it was not of the severity that it impaired his executive functioning, in other words his decision-making, his judgement, his reasoning,” he said.<\/p>\n

The court heard he believed Billings’s anger, resentment, revenge and domestic violence dynamics were important factors that contributed to a clear plan to murder Ms Ticehurst.<\/p>\n

Justice Natalie Adams will take into account Billings’s degree of mental impairment in determining his sentence.<\/p>\n

The sentence hearing continues on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a murdered childcare worker has told his daughter’s killer: “I hope that every night Molly’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,116255,152409,128994,447735,60398,68580,152408,44],"class_list":["post-878348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bail-laws","tag-daniel-billings","tag-domestic-violence-murder","tag-domestic-violence-reform","tag-dv","tag-forbes","tag-molly-ticehurst","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878348","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=878348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}