In a recent ruling by NSW Supreme Court judge Robert Hulme, Graham Edward Mailes has been declared a “forensic patient”, removing any doubt about his status within the legal system.

Mailes will continue to be housed in a jail rather than a hospital.

He was found guilty of murder in August, 2003, on the limited evidence available after a special hearing ordered by the NSW Attorney-General.

Justice James Wood imposed “a limiting term” of 25 years from March 28, 1996, when Mailes was remanded in custody.

Mailes was referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal by Justice Wood.

The tribunal in 2004 determined that Mailes was not suffering from a mental illness and not suffering from a mental condition treatable in a hospital.

It said Mailes, now 32, was moderately intellectually disabled and suffered from communication difficulties through hearing and speech defects.

There was no evidence that he had a psychotic disorder, although he had features of a personality disorder which continue to make him liable to outbursts of violence.

He was receiving antipsychotic medication to control a propensity for aggression.

It was the tribunal’s opinion that he needed a structured and consistent environment within the correctional system rather than treatment and detention in a hospital.

Mailes is now being held at the maximum security Lithgow Correctional Centre.

He appealed against the limiting term imposed by Justice Wood, but that appeal was dismissed.

The tribunal declined to review Mailes from February, 2004, believing he was not a “forensic patient”.

Legal proceedings were launched on behalf of Mailes in July last year for that to happen.

Justice Hulme has now made that declaration and ordered Mailes be “detained in a place other than a hospital”.

Ms Meredith, 19, was murdered on March 23, 1996.

Her throat was cut and her body, naked except for a pair of socks, was found in a car park.