Updated September 11, 2026 — 1:58pm,first published 11:48amWarning: Graphic contentThe killer of beloved mother, daughter and childcare worker Molly Ticehurst has been jailed for almost three decades for her brutal and callous murder, but could be out in 20 years.Justice Natalie Adams on Friday convened the NSW Supreme Court in Orange to sentence Daniel Billings, who in April 2024 broke in to Ticehurst’s Forbes home and stabbed her 15 times with a hunting knife in her bedroom.Molly Ticehurst and her son. Her killer has been sentenced to a maximum of 28 years in jail.Sharni Tolhurst PhotographyBillings stood in the dock as he was sentenced to 28 years in prison, backdated to the time of his arrest. He will be eligible for parole in 2044.Ticehurst alleged that Billings had raped her twice, once in a car where he produced a knife from the centre-console and threatened her. He had killed their puppy with a hammer, and smashed her belongings, and even threatened to break in through her window and “cut her head off” before the police could save her.Daniel Billings pictured at a Supreme Court hearing last month.Rocco Fazzari“I will come in the middle of the night … I will get to you if that is the last thing I do. The police won’t stop me. I will get to you quicker than they will,” Billings warned.Justice Adams said on Friday: “It must have been absolutely terrifying for Ms Ticehurst to die knowing her worst fears had come true”.Billings had decided to murder Ticehurst because she had gone to police to report his abuse against her.She had spoken up, and Billings had been arrested at his work. He admitted to all the abuse except the sexual assaults.Molly Ticehurst’s father, Tony, outside court ahead of the Billings sentencing on Friday.Pip FarquharsonTicehurst’s mother, Kate, arrives at the Orange courthouse.Pip FarquharsonDespite the warning signs, Billings was released on bail by a Dubbo Local Court registrar in a weekend hearing.Once on bail, he became obsessed with the way police had “disrespected” his most prized possession, a singlet memorialising his days as an amateur boxer in Queensland, and how they had judged him as a rapist.“My proudest achievement (the singlet) thrown in the dirt was the final straw, then I started to plan this and obsess over it,” Billings wrote in a note to his friends.Billings broke through Ticehurst’s window in Forbes just before midnight on April 22 and stabbed her more than a dozen times, including in the face and neck, killing her nearly instantly.“I am satisfied the murder of Ms Ticehurst was planned ... I am satisfied Ms Ticehurst was killed in retribution for going to police,” Adams found on Friday.“There was realistically no prospect of Ms Ticehurst engaging in calm conversation with Mr Billings when he had just broken through her window, with a knife, in breach of his bail.“Nothing I do in sentencing Mr Billings, nor anything I say in the reasons for that sentence, can bring Molly Ticehurst back or provide her family with any meaningful closure or relief.”All she could do was acknowledge their grief.Molly Ticehurst was killed in April 2024. Outside the court, Ticehurst’s childhood friend Aidan Clarke, who gave the eulogy at her funeral, said no amount of time in prison was ever going to be enough. Ticehurst was the perfect educator and mother who lit every room, he said.“We knew life imprisonment was something that everybody wanted, the whole nation wanted that, it was never going to be enough for anyone involved,” Clarke said.Ticehurst’s death provoked widespread anger about the intractable scourge of domestic violence, sparking extensive bail reforms called Molly’s Law, which keep alleged abusers locked up.Clarke told reporters that he hoped his friend didn’t die in vain, and that through Molly’s Law countless lives will be saved.In her sentencing, Adams considered Billings’ rehabilitation and the damage to his victims and the community.Part of that calculation was Ticehurst’s young son, who carries his mother’s ashes everywhere with an urn, even to the shops or to bed.“I really miss my mum because I miss going on holidays and mowing the lawn with her and watching Ice Age in her room,” her son wrote, in a tearful statement read by the boy’s father last week.“I love my mum very much.”Billings left his own son behind, a fact he acknowledged in one of his recordings minutes after killing Ticehurst.“Now there’s going to be two kids without a parent, I’ve just ruined two little innocent children’s lives.”Billings’ letter to the court, released last week, acknowledged the damage he has done.“How do I feel for what I done? I feel horrible, ashamed I’ve ruined so many lives,” Billings wrote.“The biggest victims are the 2 kids, Molly’s son won’t ever physically have his mum there & my son doesn’t yet understand ‘Why doesn’t Dad visit me anymore?’A NSW Corrective Services truck carrying Daniel Billings arrives at Orange courthouse.Pip FarquharsonBillings has remained in segregation since his arrest in 2024, partly because of the media attention.He also is responsible for the hardened bail laws, and the prison population has swollen directly because of Billings’ act of murder.“I’m not a heartless monster like they say, I’m just a human, capable of making mistakes and capable of feelings & emotions and I feel like absolute shit and I’m as sorry as a person can be for what I have done,” Billings complained in his letter to the court.He will be 51 when he is first eligible for parole, and nearly 60 when his sentence expires.With Jessica McSweeneyIf you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636. You can reach Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.From our partners