A woman accused of trying to hire a hitman over the dark web to kill her parents has been refused bail ahead of her trial after her lawyers admitted she “did stuff up” when it was granted in the past.
The 28-year-old, whose trial is scheduled to start in early April, is facing charges of incitement to murder and others, to which she has pleaded not guilty.
It has been alleged she made a post on a dark web forum saying she was willing to pay $20,000 for a hitman to murder her parents, then sent Bitcoin to the forum’s account.
The woman launched another bid for bail in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday (21 February), which Crown prosecutor Keegan Lee opposed.
Mr Lee said she had three periods of bail in 2021, but she breached it each time and had been on remand since that last occasion, except for when she was granted day bail late last year.
He said the last breach, in December 2021, was “particularly egregious”.
She was only allowed one mobile phone at that time but was found with a second.
The woman’s barrister, Jon White SC, admitted she “did stuff up” when previously on bail, but he said she had been in a crisis, suffering from issues to do with her mental state and “probably her maturity”.
The woman said she hadn’t been ready to be given bail on past occasions, but she was ready now, and Mr White said the fact her day bail had gone successfully was proof of this.
However, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum ultimately said she was not persuaded the risks involved with bail could be mitigated by conditions and refused it.
The woman and her parents legally cannot be named.
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