The hazards of granting bail...

Great post here on the Magistrate's Blog about the difficult decisions facing Magistrates when deciding whether or not to grant Bail. Have a read!

In this case, the accused was in court on charges of threatening to kill his former partner. He was granted bail on condition that he did not approach her or go near her home.

As AS Law students will know, bail may only be refused if there are substantial grounds that the accused would: re-offend, fail to surrender to bail, or interfere with witnesses, or be refused bail for his own protection.

In this case, no such grounds were present. Bail was granted. The accused then went out and, it is alleged, stabbed his former partner to death.

Magistrated do not have a crystal ball, and must apply the law on the evidence in front of them. One AO2 criticism of the law on bail is that the accused will sometimes offend whilst out on bail - sometimes with tragic consequences like these.

Of course, the media then put the boot in - like this.