Last week Levy called a last-minute hearing to air details about the threat to his life and asked both state prosecutors and Kelly’s defence lawyer if they felt he was now in a biased position to consider the woman’s bail. They said they did not.
Jacob and Sarah Jayne Kelly
On Monday, he told them he had decided not to recuse himself, stating that it would be “sending the wrong message” that if you threaten a judge you can have them replaced.
He also said there was an “increasing prevalence of threats against the judiciary” after stating that death threats towards judges had more than doubled since 2022.
“The ripple down effect that has on all western democracies … threatening a judge strikes at the heart of the administration of justice,” he said.
Sarah Jayne Kelly’s offending
Further details about Kelly’s offending towards her children were heard during her bail application on Monday.
The court was told that on top of claiming her two-year-old son suffered from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, Kelly claimed that another of her four children had leukemia and had been treated for that disease, which was not true.
She also made claims her children suffered from ADHD and autism spectrum disorder which they had not been diagnosed with and made other assertions that one of her children had a brain tumour.
Psychologists “opined” that Kelly was likely suffering from Factitious Disorder, formerly called Munchausen Syndrome, as well as depression, Levy said
The court also heard Kelly recently had a double mastectomy and a breast reconstruction and claimed she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer which was not true. She had the mastectomy for “prophylactic reasons” that were never substantiated, the court had previously been told.
After Kelly failed to appear at a hearing she was due to attend in March this year, a warrant was issued for her arrest and she was found to have fled to New South Wales with her husband and four children.
Sarah Jayne Kelly and husband Jacob Kelly.
A medical letter provided to court by Kelly was later found to be false and she was further charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, as well as breaching her bail conditions.
She was extradited to WA and placed into custody where she then claimed she lost functioning of the left side of her body and that she was suffering from amnesia.
She spent three weeks in hospital before she was sent back to Melaleuca Prison.
During her latest bid for freedom, Kelly’s lawyers argued she should be home with her children as “there has been almost a complete severance” between her and them, stating it was not in their best interests to be separated from their mother.
But as she is seeking to be bailed to a home she shares with her husband and children, Levy said he had concerns about her release.
“The more I read, the more I think Ms Kelly’s behaviour lies in Mr Kelly’s conduct and behaviour,” he said.
He added that he had watched police interviews with Kelly after her initial arrest where she admits to the multiple lies she created about her children.
“In the police interviews she accepts that she lies but cannot explain why she does it,” he said.
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“By the time she’s interviewed by police she knows [one of the children] doesn’t have cerebral palsy and [another child] doesn’t have leukemia … then shortly after she returns to the question of one of them having cerebral palsy having earlier told police that she is grateful that her children do not have anything wrong with them.
“It’s bizarre reading.”
A GoFundMe page created in February 2021 on Kelly’s behalf raised more than $2000 and stated that one of her children was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, adding that he required a bone marrow transplant.
She will be back in court on September 16 to hear the outcome of her bail application.
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