Murderer’s chilling confession to Tinder match
Stephanie Gardiner |
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.
“I’m sorry I murdered her,” Billings told the woman during a phone call at 2.02am on April 22, 2024.
The woman, who met Billings on the dating app in early 2022, told police she was shocked as he described 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 said, according to her statement tendered to his NSW Supreme Court sentencing hearing.
The phone call was made from a mutual friend’s property, where Billings fled in his bloodied clothes, according to a statement of facts.
The friend soon alerted police.
Billings, a former mine worker, has pleaded guilty to stabbing Ms 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.
Billings had been released on bail by a local court registrar a fortnight before the murder, charged with a series of sexual assault and domestic violence offences against Ms Ticehurst.
As soon as he learned of her allegations of repeated rapes, Billings adamantly denied the crimes and developed a twisted obsession with clearing his name.
The hearing was on Thursday played about 90 minutes of footage Billings recorded before and after the murder, in which he repeatedly claims to have been wrongly accused of rape.
Even as Ms Ticehurst lay dead in her pyjamas, he continued to claim he was a victim of injustice.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” he said in a video recorded immediately after the stabbing.
Billings was then seen raising a bloodied hand to his face as he drove away also appearing to retch.
“I don’t know why she accused me of rape, I don’t know what her game plan was.”
The series of videos also appear to allude to a plan that he would take his own life after killing Ms Ticehurst.
Forensic psychiatrist Olav Nielssen, engaged by the defence team, told the court many of the recordings could be interpreted as “goodbye videos” and that Billings was suffering significant depression.
But David Greenberg, the Crown’s expert, said Billings’ threats of suicide could also be interpreted in the context of his months of domestic abuse against Ms Ticehurst.
“Several times he threatens the victim and her family,” Professor Greenberg told the court on Friday.
“The acts of domestic violence have the context of these suicide threats.”
Billings has been listening to the proceedings in an elevated wooden dock, often leaning down to stare at the floor.
He has been seen occasionally shaking his head.
The court heard victim impact statements from Ms Ticehurst’s family on Thursday.
“When she died, part of me died with her,” her father Tony Ticehurst said, his voice heavy with emotion.
Ms Ticehurst’s mother Kate’s statement was read aloud by a family friend.
“Molly was my only child and my best friend,” her statement said.
“I’m heartbroken that my girl is no longer with me.”
The sexual assault charges were ultimately dropped when Billings pleaded guilty to murder in November 2025, after 18 months of legal negotiations
Justice Natalie Adams has indicated she will sentence Billings later in September.
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AAP