A man has been found guilty of torturing and killing his three-year-old stepdaughter, while the girl’s mother has been acquitted of the same charges.
Kaydence Mills’ mother Sinitta Tammy Dawita and her fiancé Tane Saul Desatge have been charged with murder and torture after the girl’s body was found at Chinchilla Weir, about 300 kilometres west of Brisbane, in March 2020.
The couple had pleaded not guilty but on Tuesday in the Supreme Court in Toowoomba, Judge Sean Cooper ruled that Desatge had tortured and murdered Kaydence in 2017.
He found Dawita innocent of murder and torture.
Kaydence had been subjected to increasing violence before her death, with her stepfather increasingly beating the three-year-old with a bamboo stick.
Relatives told Judge Cooper during the single-judge trial that increasingly visible bruises, often in straight lines, appeared on the girl and that she was repeatedly forced to eat her own feces.
Kaydence was last seen alive lying on a red couch with her eyes closed and motionless in the family home, with bruises on her head and face.
Desatge claimed that he had arrived home to find Kaydence had fallen down the stairs causing injuries and Dawita refused to let him call an ambulance or take her to hospital.
Kaydence Mills’ mother Sinitta Tammy Dawita and her fiancé Tane Saul Desatge have been charged with murder and torture after the girl’s body was found at Chinchilla Weir, about 300km west of Brisbane, in March 2020.
But Judge Cooper did not accept it.
Instead, he found that Desatge had tortured and beaten Kaydence on the face and head with a bamboo stick with the intention of inflicting severe pain or suffering resulting in her death.
Judge Cooper found that Destage disliked Kaydence because of her biological father and his true feelings became clear during a police-intercepted phone call with Dawita, where he called the girl “a dying little idiot.”
“I find that Mr Desatge had a significant degree of animosity towards (Kaydence’s father) and this animosity influenced his feelings towards Kaydence and his treatment of her,” Judge Cooper said.
Desatge and Dawita concealed Kaydence’s death by wrapping her body in rubbish bags and initially placing her in the outhouse in their backyard before moving her body to Chinchilla Weir where she was buried.
The couple then disposed of Kaydence’s belongings and the bamboo stick, and lied to family members about the girl’s whereabouts, saying she had gone to live with an aunt.
Desatge and Dawita had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of interference with a corpse.
Dawita was sentenced to 18 months in prison and with time served will be eligible for parole on September 23.
Desatge will be sentenced on Thursday.
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Children’s Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5-25)
