The NSW government has been ordered to pay the legal costs of a Sydney hospital cleaner who was accused of the brutal murder of his wife only for the charges to be withdrawn due to a lack of evidence, days before his trial.
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Brian Thomas Bradbury was accused of hog-tying and bludgeoning Lynette Bradbury, 52, with a dumbbell at their home in Oatlands on Halloween night in 2011.
The grandfather pleaded not guilty and a six-week jury trial was set down to begin in the NSW Supreme Court on November 3.
But on October 27, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lloyd Babb, SC, decided the case shouldn't go ahead "because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction" and the murder charge was dropped four days later.
On Monday, Acting Justice Matthews upheld an application by Mr Bradbury and his legal team for remuneration from the state for his legal costs, likely to have run into the thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.
Acting Justice Matthews upheld Mr Bradbury's argument that it was not reasonable for the prosecution to commence proceedings against him given the facts in the case.
"On the face of the Crown case statement, it always seemed to me that this was a particularly weak circumstantial case," Acting Justice Matthews said.
"It largely depended on inferences to be drawn from difficulties in their relationship because of Mr Bradbury's gambling, from the fact that there had been no forcible entry to the house and there had been only minimal disturbance inside it, and a few other relatively minor factors."
Acting Justice Matthews noted that the absence of forced entry was rendered insignificant by the fact that the laundry door was left unlocked on the day in question.
Further, a neighbour later told police that before the killing she had overheard three youths walking past the house discussing a robbery and declaring "let's do it on Halloween".
On the evening of the killing another neighbour saw three young men of similar description walking towards the house, one of whom was cradling a piece of timber in his arms.
The Crown argued that because Mr Bradbury had waived his right to a committal, and not sought a formal notice of abandonment of the proceedings, the state was not obliged to pay his legal costs.
But Justice Matthews rejected this argument.
It is now up to the NSW Attorney General to determine the size of Mr Bradbury's legal costs and to reimburse him accordingly.
