A MAN who was handed a 25-year term as a forensic psychiatric patient after he murdered a teenager in the mid-1990s will face additional testing as the NSW Attorney-General seeks to extend orders controlling his living arrangements.
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Graham Edward Mailes was found to have murdered Kim Meredith, aged 19, in central Albury as she walked to a licensed venue to meet friends on March 23, 1996.
The sentence was handed down after numerous legal battles over whether Mailes was fit to stand trial due to his mild to moderate intellectual disability and mental health issues stemming from an abusive childhood.
Mailes, originally from the Forbes area, was itinerant at the time of the murder and had previously been admitted to Wagga Base Hospital on multiple occasions.
The limiting term on Mailes had been due to expire on Saturday but the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday granted an interim order while it considered an application to keep Mailes as a forensic psychiatric patient for another three years.
Supreme Court Justice Peter Hamill on Friday granted an interim order to extend the limiting term for another three months starting from Sunday.
"Although Mr Mailes has made substantial progress under his current conditions, the seriousness of the [murder] and his history of violence and aggression indicate that there may be a significant risk to the community if the level of support changes," Justice Hamill stated.
Mailes murdered Ms Meredith by inflicting two deep cuts to her throat with a knife, which Justice Hamill described as "offending of a very serious and disturbing kind".
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Mailes, now aged 48, currently lives in accommodation monitored by Disability Service Australia staff 24 hours per day, with one hour of unsupervised leave per day, after being granted conditional release to supported accommodation in October 2017.
He was granted similar release in May 2014 but returned to live as a psychiatric inpatient after he absconded from his residence in November 2015.
Mailes told his Legal Aid NSW solicitor that he neither consented to nor opposed orders for him to remain as a forensic psychiatric patient for at least the next three months and to face additional testing by two qualified mental health professionals.
Justice Hamill noted that Mailes opposed spending another three years as a forensic patient and had a long-term "desire to live in a private rental home with his own dog and is keen to engage in cleaning work" with a disability employer.
Mailes' solicitor and the Attorney-General were ordered to provide written submissions by the end of May.
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