Two hours after Daniel Billings murdered his ex-girlfriend Molly Ticehurst in a frenzied stabbing, he spoke to a woman he had met on Tinder. During a phone call at 2:02 AM on April 22, 2024, Billings said, "I’m sorry I murdered her." The woman, who Billings met on the dating app in early 2022, described her shock as he recounted the murder during their brief conversation.
“"In an ideal world, what I wanted to do was go over there and talk to her, but she started screaming and I did what I did," Billings stated, according to her testimony presented at his New South Wales Supreme Court sentencing hearing.
Billings made the call from a mutual friend’s property, where he had fled in his bloodied clothes. The friend soon alerted police, the court heard.
Background of the Case
Billings, a former mine worker, has pleaded guilty to stabbing Ticehurst 15 times after breaking into her bedroom at her Forbes home just before midnight on April 21. The 31-year-old is facing a two-day sentencing hearing in Orange, which was expected to conclude on Friday.
Just a fortnight before the murder, Billings had been released on bail by a local court registrar. He was charged with a series of sexual assault and domestic violence offences against 28-year-old Molly. Upon learning of her allegations of repeated rapes, Billings adamantly denied the crimes and developed a twisted obsession with clearing his name, the court has been told.
