{"id":15891,"date":"2026-05-21T13:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15891\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:00:20","slug":"government-doing-everything-in-our-power-to-keep-sa-safe-from-paedophile-peter-liddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15891\/","title":{"rendered":"Government doing ‘everything in our power’ to keep SA safe from paedophile Peter Liddy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South Australian Attorney-General says the government is doing everything in its power to protect the community ahead of notorious paedophile Peter Liddy being released from jail next month.<\/p>\n

The 83-year-old former magistrate was jailed in 2001 for the sexual abuse of four children between 1983 and 1986, but his prison term is due to expire on June 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the government had already put in an application for an indefinite detention order, which would mean Liddy will remain in detention if a medical report deems he can’t or is unwilling to control his sexual instincts.<\/p>\n

“Failing that we’ve also made an application of an extended supervision order \u2014 and that would allow conditions to be placed on Peter Liddy,” Mr Maher said.<\/p>\n

“Things like not contacting children, not having access to the internet, electronic monitoring.”<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher said Liddy had committed “heinous crimes”. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n

Mr Maher said Liddy had committed “heinous crimes against innocent children”, and described the government’s approach to public safety as “multi-pronged”.<\/p>\n

“He abused the trust he held as a magistrate, he abused the trust he held in the surf-lifesaving movement,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re doing absolutely everything that’s in our power to make South Australians as safe as possible in relation to Peter Liddy.”<\/p>\n

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

He had argued the application to keep Liddy behind bars was “an abuse of process”<\/a> 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

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

\"A<\/p>\n

South Australian Supreme Court Justice Rachael Gray agreed to the release on strict home detention conditions. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

But 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

Speaking on 891 ABC Adelaide today, former commissioner for victims’ rights Michael O’Connell said he imagined Liddy’s victims would like reassurance that their suffering has not been forgotten and “will be considered as a paramount interest in the future on how Liddy is dealt with”.<\/p>\n

“With the application of the stay of proceedings, with the steps being taken by the Attorney-General, with the pending release, each of those is a stark reminder to each individual victim that we know of \u2014 and those victims that we’re not aware of \u2014 that this person \u2026 committed some of the most heinous crimes against children that we’ve seen in the public field,” he said.<\/p>\n

Advocate for abuse survivors, lawyer Andrew Carpenter, criticised the government’s timing on making the applications.<\/p>\n

“The state government should’ve dealt with this a long time ago, and not waited until the last moment to seek these orders,” Mr Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

\"Advocate<\/p>\n

Advocate for abuse survivors and lawyer Andrew Carpenter. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n

He said victims would be fearful of Liddy’s release because he has not shown any remorse or contrition for his crimes.<\/p>\n

“[He] doesn’t accept his findings of guilt, anyone that remains of the view that they did nothing wrong is still a danger to society,” Mr Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

“The fact that he hasn’t showed remorse and accepted his conviction shows that he’s a person that should not be around children.”<\/p>\n

In response to Mr Carpenter’s comments, a government spokesperson said the applications for indefinite detention or an extended supervision order were “made in accordance with advice”.<\/p>\n

“The number one priority for this government is the safety of the community, which is why we are leveraging every available option to keep Liddy behind bars,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Australian Attorney-General says the government is doing everything in its power to protect the community ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,827,15780,15784,6969,322,11703,15782,11700,11698,8851,15783,12364,15781,8961],"class_list":["post-15891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-abuser","tag-expire","tag-jail","tag-kyam-maher","tag-magistrate","tag-offender","tag-paedophile","tag-peter-liddy","tag-prison","tag-release","tag-sentence","tag-sex","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891","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=15891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}