A WOMAN who drove her car off a 30 metre cliff at Bar Beach, striking a woman and nearly hitting her family on the sand below, has a history of mental illness and had complained in the hours before the incident of "hearing voices in her head from the devil".
The woman, 46, who remains in John Hunter Hospital under guard of corrective services after she was refused bail last week, did not appear in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday as her solicitor, Mark Ramsland, applied to have her taken to a mental health facility for assessment.
However, Magistrate Peter Barnett said he did not have the power to make the order because the DPP had elected to prosecute the charge of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.
The matter was adjourned until next week, when it is expected the woman will make another application for bail.
Mr Ramsland had said the woman had only been released from The Mater Hospital's mental health unit a few weeks before she drove her car at speed off the cliff at Bar Beach on Thursday.
The woman she hit on the beach was seriously injured.
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