He said it would be “unjust to subject him to an inquiry” given a 2019 report by a forensic psychiatrist had already found Liddy was capable of controlling his sexual instincts.<\/p>\n
“It would be an abuse of process of the court to do so,” Mr Powell said.<\/p>\n
Mr Powell said that report, by Dr Craig Raeside, had found there was “no indication that [Liddy] was incapable of controlling his sexual conduct” and that he “would not support a finding that Mr Liddy is unwilling to control his sexual behaviour”.<\/p>\n
He said Dr Raeside had further suggested that any risk Liddy may pose if released into the community “could be adequately managed with appropriate supervision”.<\/p>\n
He said a prison program had deemed Liddy to be at “average risk of sexual reoffending” which equated to a low-to-moderate risk.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d2f09ddb504e07d9a71c796dc53f4038.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Legal Services Commission defence lawyer Jeff Powell SC outside an Adelaide court. (ABC News: Jordanna Schriever)<\/p>\n
Mr Powell criticised the timing of the government’s application which was filed in February, just months before Liddy was due to be released.<\/p>\n
“His circumstances have been fully known by the Crown for years, the fact of his offending hasn’t changed, the unproven allegations haven’t changed, the fact that there is ongoing denials is unchanged \u2026 there is nothing new here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“What has changed is that \u2026 he is now, of course, older, he is frailer and he is more unwell.<\/p>\n
“He has an unblemished record as a prisoner for 25 years.”<\/p>\n
Mr Powell said Liddy’s compliant conduct while in custody appeared to be viewed by the government as “a facade”.<\/p>\n
‘Detain people until they confess’<\/p>\n
Alison Doecke KC, for the government, said shelving the proceedings would be “inappropriate” and that the government was under “no obligation” to file its applications any earlier.<\/p>\n
She said there were issues with Dr Raeside’s 2019 report, because it was almost seven years old, did not include a current risk assessment and did not include the findings of a six-month sexual offender course Liddy had completed in prison.<\/p>\n
She said it was also unclear how much consideration Dr Raeside had given unproven allegations against Liddy.<\/p>\n
“Liddy has committed horrendous sexual offending which has been denied,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said those continued denials, meant a prison treatment program had been unable to assess his potential risk.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s the point that you detain people until they confess,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What is missing from Raeside’s report \u2026 is how does this man’s denial impact his current risk level?<\/p>\n
“The reason to detain is that in the absence of accurate and reliable assessment of the risk, your Honour should not be reassured by what is an ‘average risk of sexual re-offending’.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5d93b98752f1b87d315c9e4fe6d79f2b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lawyer Alison Doecke KC strongly defended the Attorney-General’s application to keep Liddy behind bars. (ABC News: Jordanna Schriever)<\/p>\n
She said it was also “important to recognise” that Liddy’s cognitive capacity had “fluctuated markedly over time” and that “in more recent times there is no concern about Mr Liddy’s cognitive capacity”.<\/p>\n
“The court needs to have caution in closing off this application by granting a permanent stay on the basis of a report that is six-and-a-half years old for a man we know whose cognitive capacity has fluctuated over time.”<\/p>\n
The government has also sought Liddy be subject to a supervision order if released.<\/p>\n
Ms Doecke said if granted, that order should include a six-month period of strict home detention conditions.<\/p>\n
Liddy’s lawyers, however, said any period of home detention should last only three months.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the restrictions sought would also include limiting Liddy’s access to a computer or the internet \u2014 even though he had “never used a computer and doesn’t intend to”.<\/p>\n
The court heard the premises where Liddy would live were “currently being assessed”, but Ms Doecke said there were “complexities” which could not be articulated in open court.<\/p>\n
She said “practical steps” including connecting electricity were still required.<\/p>\n
Justice Rachael Gray will deliver a decision next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keeping paedophile former magistrate Peter Liddy in prison at the completion of his 25-year jail term next month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,11702,11701,53,11699,6969,9211,11703,11700,11698],"class_list":["post-10627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-child-sex-offences","tag-child-sex-offender","tag-detention","tag-indefinite","tag-jail","tag-lawyer","tag-magistrate","tag-paedophile","tag-peter-liddy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}