The mother of murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten has candidly spoken out about her feelings towards the man who took her life and regrets not being there when the girl needed her most.
Kallista Mutten was 12 weeks pregnant when her then-fiancé Justin Stein, 33, shot nine-year-old Charlise dead execution-style before stuffing her body into a barrel on his family’s Blue Mountains farm and dumping it near the Colo River in January 2022.
As Stein was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars, Ms Mutten revealed on Monday that she has forgiven him.
“As hard as it is, I forgive Justin, not for him but for me, so that he has no control over me and can never control me,” she told the BBC. The Telegraph newspaper.
Mrs. Mutten gave birth to a baby boy six months after Charlise’s death.
Their “beautiful” boy, who turned two last month, remains in the care of relatives while Mutten receives treatment for drug addiction and comes to terms with the loss of Charlise.
“I may not have been there for my daughter like I should have been, and I’m very sorry about that, but I have to live with that,” he said.
“I’m not going to let him down either, he deserves me to fight for him and he deserves my love.”
Kallista Mutten (pictured with Charlise, Christmas 2021) said she is battling her drug addiction for the sake of her two-year-old son.
Ms Mutten often recounts her happy memories with Charlise (pictured) and recalls that “it was amazing how smart she was”.
Ms. Mutten has already completed a long stay in a rehabilitation center and continues with outpatient treatment.
She has many happy memories of her intelligent daughter who read 150 books in one year.
She also recalled how Charlise told her she was the best mother in the world after hearing people speaking ill of Mutten and her then partner.
During Stein’s sentencing hearing last week, Ms. Mutten said, “I trusted someone with my daughter and because of my trust in someone, I put my daughter in danger.”
Reflecting further on their relationship, she has forgiven Stein for the horrific death of her daughter.
“As hard as it is, I forgive Justin, not for him but for me, so that he has no control over me and can never control me,” Mutten said.
“People say I was in the relationship for money… I was in it for love and belonging… I thought it would be a fairy tale.”
Ms Mutten’s revelation comes after Judge Helen Wilson lashed out at Stein and sentenced him to life in prison.
Judge Helen Wilson handed down the sentence in the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney, where Stein appeared in person looking thin and nervous.
Judge Wilson said Stein had “no remorse” and “no humanity or morals.”
He said the shooting that took place at Stein’s luxury family home in the Blue Mountains in January 2022 was “unspeakably cruel and murderous”.
“These were deliberate acts and the second shot was a firing shot. He carried out these actions with the intention of killing her,” he said.
‘He tried to blame Charlise’s mother for his own indecent behavior.
‘Charlise was not just a child; she was a very small child, nine years and five months old.
“Charlise had begun referring to her attacker as ‘Dad.’ This crime represents a blatant violation of that trust.”
Justin Stein (pictured) shot Charlise Mutten in the face after drugging her and then dumped her body in a barrel in the woods.
Justin Stein is being sentenced for murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten (above, in December 2021, on her last Christmas) and then dumping her body in a barrel.
Charlise was murdered after being drugged with Stein’s schizophrenia medication.
An adult dose of the drug would have a profound sedative effect on a child, the court heard.
“She would have been in a state of pronounced drowsiness; she had even less ability to defend herself and flee from danger,” Judge Wilson said.
Judge Wilson called Stein’s reportedly tearful account of Charlise’s death during the trial “false” and said the handkerchief she used was dry.
“From where I was sitting I could see very clearly, her eyes were completely dry and she had not shed a single tear,” Judge Wilson said with disgust.
Charlise had been visiting her mother and Stein for Christmas from the Gold Coast, where she lived with her grandparents.
She spent the night of January 11 alone with Stein at a property in the Blue Mountains, while her mother stayed in a caravan about 90 minutes away by car.
The same day Charlise’s body was found, investigators charged Stein with her murder after using location data from her phone to determine where the barrel was dropped.
Judge Wilson said Stein likely shot the girl once in the back as she tried to run away, before approaching her and firing another shot directly into her head.
“This was a shockingly cruel crime,” Ms Wilson said.
‘The attacker approached Charlise and fired the second shot at point-blank range.
“He shot Charlise twice with a stolen gun,” Judge Wilson said.
“It was not survivable and it was not intended to be.”
Only Charlise’s grandfather, Clinton Mutten (above), who along with his wife Deborah was the nine-year-old’s legal guardian, showed up for Justin Stein’s sentencing.
Stein’s barrister Carolyn Davenport SC said it would be “a very cruel and unusual punishment” to send a man of Stein’s age to prison for the rest of his life.
“There is no reason that we know of,” he said.
Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, broke down in tears during a recent hearing, telling her ex-fiancé: “I hate myself for trusting you.”
Ms Mutten read the victim impact statement via audio and video link.
Her voice shaking, Mrs. Mutten told Stein: “(Charlise) just longed for you to be her father. I hate myself for being so wrong about you.”
‘I am forced to live with the fact that I trusted someone and because of that trust, I put my daughter in danger.’
Stein blinked rapidly and then closed his eyes for several seconds, his leg shaking restlessly as he listened to Mrs. Mutten and his father’s statements.
“I won’t see her grow up, have her first boyfriend and get married,” Charlise’s mother said.
‘What I miss most is being Charlise’s mom and having her tell me I love you.
‘Charlise was my biggest fan and always said I was the best mom in the world.’
Ms Mutten said that since Charlise’s murder, she had been harassed in public, abused by people on public transport and followed by the media to the point where she was unable to go outside.
Justin Stein buys sand from Bunnings to make the barrel he has put Charlise’s body in heavier
Detectives found Charlie’s body in this barrel (above, in situ, with the girl’s remains inside), dumped by Stein on the banks of the Colo River.
She said the last time she saw Charlise, she had told her she was pregnant and Charlise was excited to become a big sister.
Ms Mutten added: “My life will never be the same.”
She said Charlise “loved being a nerd and reading books.”
A week after the shooting, detectives found Charlise’s 33.5kg body wrapped in a tarp, bound with tape and placed upside down inside an industrial barrel on the banks of the Colo River.
During a five-week trial in May-June, Stein attempted to frame Charlise’s mother, then a serious intravenous methamphetamine addict, for murdering her own daughter.
The court heard Kallista injected himself with a massive amount of “17 points a day” of ice and had suffered psychotic episodes as he lay on the ground, babbling incoherently.
But in a shocking testimony at the trial, he said he had not been with Stein or Charlise on the night of the murder and believed her story that her daughter was being cared for by another woman.
On June 19, after deliberating for 35 hours over eight days, a jury found Justin Stein guilty of Charlise’s murder.
Stein had already admitted dumping the body, after police showed CCTV footage showing him driving the tarpaulin-wrapped barrel around Sydney, collecting sand from Bunnings to weigh it down, then heading to a riverbank 100km northwest of Sydney.
Stein had claimed that after Mrs. Mutten shot her daughter, he secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and secured it in the back of his truck without her knowledge.
But the jury didn’t believe him.
Ms Mutten denied any involvement in her daughter’s death and broke down in tears when faced with the accusation in court.
Stein exiting Lane Cove tunnel with barrel on back covered by blue tarp
Charlise Mutten at school in 2021, the last year of her short life, and the barrel she was placed in when Stein disposed of her body in January 2022
Stein appeared as the defense’s only witness at the trial and spent two days going over his version of events.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said Stein gave Charlise her schizophrenia medication, Quetiapine, “either intentionally or… accidentally”.
Stein denied giving Charlise the drug and said he had followed a plan by Charlise’s mother to cover up the murder, which included lying to police about leaving the girl in the care of an imaginary woman who was appraising items at the Mount Wilson estate.