{"id":15121,"date":"2026-05-20T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15121\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:04:10","slug":"notorious-paedophile-and-former-magistrate-peter-liddy-to-be-released-on-home-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15121\/","title":{"rendered":"Notorious paedophile and former magistrate Peter Liddy to be released on home detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paedophile and former magistrate Peter Liddy will be released from jail when his sentence expires next month, despite an ongoing application to have him indefinitely detained.<\/p>\n

The 83-year-old notorious child abuser was jailed in 2001 for the sexual abuse of four children between 1983 and 1986.<\/p>\n

He has remained in custody, with his prison term due to expire on June 4.<\/p>\n

South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher lodged an application for his indefinite detention earlier<\/a> this year, which Liddy’s defence counsel Jeff Powell SC last week asked the court to stay permanently<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He had argued the application to keep Liddy behind bars was “an abuse of process” and that 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

In response Alison Doecke KC, counsel for the attorney-general, argued the report was almost seven years old and did not include a current risk assessment of Liddy’s ability to control his sexual instincts.<\/p>\n

Today Supreme Court Justice Rachael Gray refused Liddy’s bid to permanently shelve the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Justice Rachel Gray ordered that Liddy be subject to a set of strict home detention conditions upon his release from prison next month. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

She instead ruled that the 83-year-old should be released on strict home detention conditions \u2014 at least temporarily \u2014 while the court awaits medical and psychiatric reports to determine whether Liddy can control his sexual instincts.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s appropriate for the protection and safety of the community to impose a regime for six months,” Justice Gray said.<\/p>\n

She imposed conditions including electronic monitoring, restricted internet access and a ban on contact with children \u2014 prohibiting him from going within 50 metres of any school, kindergarten or public playground.<\/p>\n

Liddy also must provide police with access to any electronic equipment at any time.<\/p>\n

Justice Gray also banned Liddy from possessing firearms, alcohol and drugs \u2014 unless medication is prescribed \u2014 and he cannot go to any pubs, clubs or licensed venues.<\/p>\n

He will be under the supervision of a corrections officer and cannot leave his home, unless for an emergency, without permission.<\/p>\n

At last week’s hearing Liddy’s lawyer said the 2019 psychiatric report had suggested that any risk Liddy may pose if released into the community “could be adequately managed with appropriate supervision”.<\/p>\n

But Ms Doecke said Liddy continued to deny his guilt, meaning a prison treatment program had been unable to assess his potential risk.<\/p>\n

“Liddy has committed horrendous sexual offending, which has been denied,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The court has decided to release Liddy, at least temporarily, while proceedings continue. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the attorney-general welcomed the court’s decision to proceed with the indefinite detention application.<\/p>\n

“At all times the government’s priority has remained the safety and protection of the community and we’ve taken every step available to us,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Many South Australians will remember the horrific crimes committed by the deplorable predator Peter Liddy in the 1980s.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson also said the expert reports into whether Liddy was willing and able to control his sexual instincts were “essential in determining whether he will be detained indefinitely”.<\/p>\n

Paedophile’s indefinite jail an ‘abuse of process’, lawyer says<\/a><\/p>\n

A lawyer for paedophile former magistrate Peter Liddy asks a court to permanently stay an application to keep his client behind bars, but a lawyer for the SA Attorney-General says Liddy continues to deny his crimes.<\/p>\n

South Australia’s former victims’ rights commissioner Michael O’Connell said Liddy’s release would be difficult for people affected by his crimes.<\/p>\n

“For some of his victims the release is going to be a painful reminder of the past harms of their experiences as victims,” he said.<\/p>\n

“For others, however, I suspect that this will bring about a sense that one aspect of their life is coming to an end, and that is the journey through the justice system.”<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connell said the fact the court was considering the application to keep Liddy behind bars was important for victim-survivors.<\/p>\n

“The fact that the court is willing to hear more from the attorney-general and has not simply stayed the proceedings will be important,” he said.<\/p>\n

“At least it is recognition that the victims should be heard, and they should be given an opportunity to be kept informed about the decision of the court, and how the court is going to reach its decision.”<\/p>\n

A further hearing has been set down for November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paedophile and former magistrate Peter Liddy will be released from jail when his sentence expires next month, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7943,22,21,4693,15235,15234,11700,11698,15233],"class_list":["post-15121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abuse","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-child","tag-former-magistrate","tag-notorious","tag-paedophile","tag-peter-liddy","tag-sexual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121","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=15121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}