Marilyn Gaye Hendricks blames COVID-19 breaches on Premier Steven Marshall’s ‘very ambiguous’ social media post

A woman accused of breaching a direction to isolate on entry to South Australia has blamed a ‘very ambiguous’ social media post for her confusion.

Marilyn Gaye Hendricks leaves the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday after she was charged with four counts of failing to comply with COVID-19 directions. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

A Queensland woman accused of breaching isolation requirements in South Australia says she became confused by a “very ambiguous” post on the Facebook page of Premier Steven Marshall.

Marilyn Gaye Hendricks, 66, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday charged with four counts of failing to comply with COVID-19 directions.

While SA Police has alleged she arrived on a plane from Brisbane on January 8, the court heard she arrived on January 13.

Her charges allegedly took place on January 13, 18 and 21 at Norwood, in the eastern suburbs, and January 20 in Adelaide.

Marilyn Gaye Hendricks will be allowed to return to Queensland, after she was charged with four counts of failing to comply with COVID-19 directions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Christina Chrisakis, for Ms Hendricks, said her client had been isolating until she saw Mr Marshall’s January 15 Facebook post.

“Ultimately … the post indicates that if you are currently in quarantine because you came to South Australia from Greater Brisbane on or after the 9th of January, you’ll be able to come out,” she said.

“Ms Hendricks arrived on the 13th of January, and she took that to mean that she was able to leave isolation.

“We say, given that the post is very ambiguous and tends to suggest that one would be able to come out, she has a reasonable excuse for having not complied with the direction to self-isolate.”

Starting Saturday January 9, the South Australian government required travellers from Greater Brisbane would to quarantine for two weeks.

Then, on January 15, it was announced that anyone who enters from January 17 would not be required to isolate but must still present for testing.

The ‘confusing’ Facebook post.

While Mr Marshall’s post said those already in quarantine from Greater Brisbane will be able to leave, a SA Police post the following day said anyone isolating must continue to do so until contacted by SA Health and authorised to go out.

It also said people who had been in high-risk locations in Brisbane would be required to finish their quarantine period.

SA Police has alleged Ms Hendricks failed to present for her COVID tests on day one and five as required, and was found breaching the quarantine direction on her way to go shopping.

It was also alleged she made contact with a prisoner at the Adelaide Remand Centre, and visited after giving a false name.

She was arrested at Norwood on January 21, while the police officers who arrested her were put into preventive self-quarantine.

Ms Chrisakis on Monday said that two of the four charges would be contested, and asked that her client’s bail address be changed to allow her to live in Chermside, in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

Magistrate Luke Davis agreed to the request and ordered that she reappear in court in March.

Outside court, Ms Hendricks’ bail guarantor, who wished to be identified only as Victoria, called for greater clarity around COVID-19 travel requirements.

“Steven Marshall needs to make sure the information on his Facebook page is a little less ambiguous, and the same on the SA Health page,” she said.

“We followed that as well and we thought we were doing the right thing and it turns out, by the law, we’re not.

“We’re not the type of people who would break the law willy nilly.”