ONLY a day after being released from prison having served five months for defying a condition of his extended supervision order in Wagga, convicted killer John Holschier allegedly has done it again.
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Holschier on Wednesday appeared in Wagga Local Court by videolink with the courthouse cells accused of allowing the battery in a movement monitoring device attached to his ankle to go flat.
Holschier pleaded not guilty, claiming the device was defective.
The 49-year-old was jailed in 1991 for murdering his partner and grievously harming their 13-month-old daughter with a brick at their home in Chatswood.
Holschier was released from jail on parole in September, 2014, but three months later was declared a high-risk offender by the NSW Supreme Court on an application by the state government and made subject to a three-year extended supervision order that restricts his freedom.
Holschier was locked up on November 24 last year after being arrested on three counts of not complying with the supervision order.
After initially denying the offences, Holschier later pleaded guilty to one count – allowing his ankle bracelet to go flat – and on February 10 was given a five-month fixed jail term backdated to his arrest.
The court in February was told Holschier – who was living in central Wagga last year – would be “relocated” after his release from prison, but when he walked out of the Junee Correctional Centre on Monday this week he was taken to a Wagga motel by Community Corrections staff.
He was arrested on Tuesday evening.
Holschier, still wearing the ankle bracelet and a flannelette shirt and sporting a beard, applied for bail on Wednesday through solicitor Jim Allen.
“What he tells me … is that the equipment is defective,” Mr Allen told magistrate Erin Kennedy.
“He tells me he did not do anything, it’s the equipment.”
Mr Allen said he had tried without success on Wednesday morning to get the monitoring equipment tested.
He told the court he had just received instructions he was “not going to get any joy today on any urgent testing of the equipment.”
Asking for Holschier’s release, Mr Allen said his client could spend two months in custody before the prosecution served its brief of evidence.
“If it (the monitoring equipment) comes back defective, he would have spent a couple of months in custody for an offence he did not commit,” Mr Allen said.
Mr Allen said if granted bail, Holschier would be given a new bracelet and be subject to monitoring while on remand.
Ms Kennedy refused Holschier bail, saying she was not satisfied he had shown cause why his detention was not justified.
She adjourned the case until June 7 for Mr Allen to reply to the brief of evidence, which must be served on him by May 24.
Ms Kennedy granted permission for the case to be re-listed before then if testing finds the equipment faulty.
Holschier asked Ms Kennedy for a solicitor to be present when Community Corrections staff removed the bracelet from his ankle.
“Someone will come down and talk to you,” Ms Kennedy replied.
