A judge is demanding answers after a man who threatened to “chop up” a woman who accused him of rape was released on bail, despite being described as a serious danger to the public.
Martin Edwards made the chilling threat directly to police, telling officers he would attack the woman who had accused him of rape. He then went ahead and carried out an assault on her anyway. Yet somehow, Edwards was granted bail before his case was dealt with by the courts.
The case has now landed in front of a judge who wants to know exactly how this happened and who made the call to release him.
The details emerging from court are deeply troubling. Edwards did not just make a vague threat in the heat of the moment. He told police, point blank, what he intended to do to his accuser. That alone would raise serious alarm bells for anyone assessing whether he should be walking free. The fact that he then followed through and attacked the woman makes the decision to grant him bail even harder to understand.
Judges in Wales have been increasingly vocal about the risks posed when bail decisions go wrong, particularly in cases involving violence against women. This case looks set to become a flashpoint for that wider conversation.
The court is now pushing for a full explanation of the bail decision, including who assessed the risk Edwards posed and what information they were working from when they decided he could be released. There are serious questions about whether proper procedures were followed and whether the victim was left exposed to danger that should have been foreseen.
Victim safety is supposed to sit at the heart of every bail decision in cases like this. When someone explicitly states their intention to harm a specific person and then acts on that threat, the system is supposed to catch it. In this case, it clearly did not.
Wales has seen growing pressure on courts, police and the Crown Prosecution Service to work more closely together on cases involving violence against women and girls. Campaigners have long argued that bail conditions are too often inadequate, too rarely enforced, and that victims are left to manage their own safety with little real support.
Edwards now faces serious charges, and the assault on the victim has added further weight to the case against him. But for those watching this case, the damage is already done. The woman at the centre of this was attacked after the system was given every reason to keep Edwards away from her.
The judge overseeing the case has made clear they are not satisfied with how events unfolded and wants a proper account before proceedings go any further. It is a rare and pointed intervention that signals just how seriously the court is taking the failures that appear to have occurred.
For the victim, the ordeal of going through a rape case is already one of the most difficult experiences the justice system can put anyone through. To then be attacked by the man she accused, after he had openly told police what he planned to do, is a catastrophic failure that will rightly face scrutiny.
The full details of how the bail decision was reached are expected to be examined in court in the coming weeks.