This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Bail laws in NSW are set to come under fresh scrutiny after news emerged the gunman in the Sydney siege was released from custody despite facing more than 40 offences.



Man Haron Monis, 50, first gained notoriety when he penned a series of grossly offensive letters to grieving families of several soldiers killed in Afghanistan.



He was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for this in 2013.



But within a year he had been charged with being an accessory to his ex-wife’s murder and more than 40 sex offences against several women.



Noleen Hayson Pal, 30, was stabbed to death and set alight in April 2013 in a Werrington unit block in western Sydney.



Monis’s then partner, Amirah Droudis, 34, has been charged with her murder.



Monis had been released on bail in December last year on the accessory charge.



Magistrate William Pierce said at the time the crown’s case was weak and that the pair did not represent a threat to the public.



“If there is a threat, it was to this woman who was murdered,” Pierce said.



When he reappeared in court in May and again in October this year over the fresh sexual assault offences, his bail was continued.



Monis was deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk to interfering with witnesses or evidence” but that was said to be offset by tough conditions, including reporting daily to police.



That decision came amid outcry over the bail laws within a month of them coming into effect in May after accused murderer Steven Frank Fesus and former bikie boss Mahmoud Mick Hawi were released from custody.