The family of murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten have spoken of their mental torment over the brutal death of the nine-year-old and the abuse they have received from strangers.
Grandfather Clinton Mutten tearfully read a victim impact statement on behalf of himself and his wife Deborah before the sentencing of Charlise’s killer’s stepfather Justin Stein on Friday.
Mr Mutten’s emotional plea to the court revealed how their lives have been shattered since his beloved granddaughter was killed when Stein shot her in the face at point-blank range in January 2022.
Stein, 33, was the fiancé of his drug-addicted daughter Kallista Mutten at the time of the heartbreaking tragedy, which took place at Stein’s family home in Mount Wilson in Sydney’s Blue Mountains.
Stein was found guilty of murder in June and appeared in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday for a sentencing hearing, where Mutten told Justice Helen Wilson about the hell the family has endured in the wake of the killing.
Charlise’s grandmother is suffering from “a lot of mental anguish and sadness,” she said. “This is affecting her mental and physical health, causing depression and anxiety.”
‘Failure to protect Charlise will haunt our consciences for the rest of our lives, leading to depression and sometimes suicidal thoughts.
‘We trusted our daughter and her partner to care for Charlise and in retrospect that trust was misplaced… family members have become estranged.
Charlise’s murder had caused her grandmother and legal guardian Deborah Mutten (pictured above together) ‘a lot of mental anguish and sadness, depression and anxiety’.
Since Charlise (above on her last Christmas, in 2021) was killed, people have blamed her grandparents, Clinton Mutten said, for failing to protect her.
‘Since Charlise was murdered, we have been accused of failing her as grandparents.
“As his legal guardians, we did not provide him with adequate protection.”
His voice shaking as he spoke to a packed room, Mr. Mutten described the last moment he saw his granddaughter “loving, respectful, intelligent and thoughtful.”
Mutten’s last conversation with Charlise was at Coolangatta Airport on the Gold Coast in December 2021, just days before her murder.
She was leaving her grandparents to board a flight to Sydney to spend Christmas with her mother and Stein.
“My last words to Charlise were ‘be a good girl and make us proud’ and Charlise said, ‘I’m going to die,'” he told the court.
‘Charlise was a special girl who aspired to be a veterinarian, an aspiration that will now never be possible.
‘We took Charlise to school punctually every day. The sound of the school bell, which we can hear from our home, now reminds us of our loss, as do stationery (advertising campaigns) and back-to-school uniforms.
Clinton Mutten, pictured leaving the sentencing hearing on Friday, said he and his wife Deborah had been blamed for failing to protect their beloved granddaughter.
Mr Mutten, pictured above with his son, also called Clinton, said his trust in his daughter Kallista and her then partner Justin Stein to look after Charlise had been “misplaced”.
“I will never hear Charlise’s footsteps after school again. I will never teach Charlise how to solve a math problem again.
“Why did they kill Charlise while she was alone with someone my daughter trusted? Did they hunt her down, incapacitate her… kill her while she was begging for her life?
“Did he say my name or someone else’s? I think these are questions that will never be answered and will be a burden for the rest of my life.”
Mr Mutten said his granddaughter had been honoured at an annual literacy award named after her at Tweed Heads Public School.
He also revealed that although he and his wife had “until recently” been estranged from their daughter following Charlise’s murder, they now realised that “Charlise’s mother is also a victim of this crime,” he said.
He said Stein’s killing Charlise while she was with “her beloved mother and a person she considered a potential father… violates every sense of decency and trust.”
Kallista Mutten appeared via video link to also read a victim impact statement, describing how she has been abused by strangers on public transport following Charlise’s murder.
Tweed Heads Public School has named a literacy award after Charlise Mutten (above with a school award in 2021), to honour the “bookworm” who loved to read.
One of the last photographs of Charlise Mutten, with her mother Kallista, just over two weeks before she was murdered.
“My entire life has been exposed and put under a microscope for everyone to see,” Mutten said. “I had no voice, just rumors and fingers pointed at me.
‘I can’t stand getting a job and people saying I’m not a good mother.
‘Charlise was my biggest fan and always said I was the best mom in the world.
I miss hearing her voice. I miss most of all being Charlise’s mom and having her to tell me that I love her.
‘She was a very kind, intelligent and good girl and she was not afraid to say nice things to people.
‘My life will never be the same. I won’t see her grow up, or go to high school, or have her first boyfriend, or get married.
“I am forced to live with the fact that I trusted someone and because of that trust, I put my daughter in danger. I feel very guilty about it.”
Stein is set to be sentenced on Monday. Crown prosecutors have asked for him to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
His defense attorney has requested a non-parole period of 25 years, which means a possible release date of 2047, when he will be 56.