Daniel Billings phoned a woman he had met on a dating application just two hours after fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend Molly Ticehurst in a frenzied attack, confessing to the killing during their brief conversation.
"I'm sorry I murdered her,"Billings told the woman at 2.02am on 22 April 2024, according to evidence presented at his sentencing hearing in Orange.
The woman, whom Billings had met on the dating app in early 2022, informed police she was shocked when he described the killing during their call.
"In an ideal world, what I wanted to do was go over there and talk to her, but she started screaming and I did what I did,"Billings said, according to her statement provided to the court.
Billings made the call from a mutual friend's property, where he had fled wearing bloodied clothes. The friend subsequently notified police, the court heard.
The 31-year-old former mine worker has admitted to stabbing Molly Ticehurst 15 times after forcing his way into her bedroom at her Forbes home shortly before midnight on 21 April 2024. The sexual assault charges against him were withdrawn after he pleaded guilty to murder in the local court in November 2025, following 18 months of legal negotiations.
The case has become a focal point in Australia's national conversation about gendered violence, with the murder galvanizing a movement against domestic violence and shaping policy discussions across the country.
What triggered the killing?
Billings had been released on bail by a local court registrar a fortnight before the murder, despite facing charges of sexual assault and domestic violence offences against the 28-year-old Molly. Upon learning of her allegations of repeated rapes, he vehemently denied the crimes and became consumed with an obsession about clearing his name, the court was told.
The sentencing hearing, held over two days in Orange, heard 90 minutes of footage that Billings had recorded before and after the murder. In these recordings, he repeatedly insisted he had been wrongly accused of rape. Even as Molly lay dead in her pyjamas, he continued to claim he was a victim of injustice.
What did the recordings reveal?
"I can't believe I just did that,"Billings said in a video recorded immediately after the stabbing. The footage showed him raising a bloodied hand to his face as he drove away, appearing to retch.
"I don't know why she accused me of rape, I don't know what her game plan was."
The videos appeared to contain references to a plan in which he would take his own life after killing Molly. Forensic psychiatrist Olav Nielssen, engaged by the defence team, told the court that many of the recordings could be interpreted as
"goodbye videos"and that Billings was experiencing significant depression at the time.
However, Prof David Greenberg, the prosecution's expert, presented a different interpretation. He told the court that Billings' threats of suicide could also be understood in the context of his months of domestic abuse against Molly.
"Several times he threatens the victim and her family,"Greenberg told the court.
"The acts of domestic violence have the context of these suicide threats."
The hearing was brought forward from 7 September to 3 and 4 September so the defence psychiatrist could give evidence in person. Justice Natalie Adams will consider the extent of Billings's mental impairment when deciding sentence, with additional charges of property damage, animal cruelty, and breaching an apprehended violence order being taken into account.
What did the victim's family say?
The court heard victim impact statements from Molly's family during the hearing. Her father, Tony Ticehurst, expressed the profound loss his family has endured.
"When she died, part of me died with her,"Tony Ticehurst said.
What happens next?
Billings sat in an elevated wooden dock throughout the proceedings on Friday, often leaning down to stare at the floor and occasionally shaking his head. The sentencing hearing is set to continue on Friday, following the two-day hearing in Orange. Justice Adams has indicated she will deliver her sentence later in September.
