WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS
A man neglected, spanked and abused his two-year-old stepdaughter because he didn’t like her, forcing her to eat her own feces before murdering her and dumping her remains near a landfill.
Tane Saul Desatge was found guilty earlier this week during a judge-only trial of the murder and torture of Kaydence Hazel Mills, the daughter of his then girlfriend Sinitta Tammy Dawita, between February 16 and May 6, 2017.
The two-year-old boy’s body was found buried near Chinchilla Weir in Queensland in March 2020, wrapped in garbage bags and a blanket.
Desatge, 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Supreme Court in Toowoomba on Thursday. He will be eligible for parole in 2042.
Ms Dawita, 32, was found not guilty of murdering her daughter and the alternative charge of manslaughter, and not guilty of torture.
In a judgment released as he delivered his verdict, High Court judge Paul Cooper said the couple began a relationship in 2015 and were living in a unit in Chinchilla in 2016.
Kaydence was the biological daughter of Ms Dawita and another man, Robert Mills.
Tane Saul Desatge was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering his two-year-old stepdaughter, Kaydence Hazel Mills (pictured).
Desatge (pictured left) and Kaydence’s mother, Sinitta Tammy Dawita (pictured together), blamed each other for the children’s deaths.
Judge Cooper said Desatge had “animosity” towards Mills, which influenced his treatment of Kaydence.
The boy would be left naked and sleeping in the bathroom after being confined there by Desatge, he said.
On other occasions, Desatge forced Kaydence to eat her own feces.
Judge Cooper said the girl was hit with a bamboo stick on the face and head during toilet training; the beatings were so severe that she was last seen lying on a red sofa and not breathing properly.
Kaydence’s death could not be determined, but an autopsy determined it was likely due to a severe blow to the base of the skull.
Judge Cooper said there was evidence he had suffered a fractured rib at least a week before his death in early 2017.
‘The defendants concealed her death by first wrapping the body and placing it in a shed in the backyard of the house they lived in at Chinchilla; then subsequently burying the body at the Chinchilla landfill site,’ a summary of Judge Cooper’s sentence states.
Judge Cooper said the couple then disposed of Kaydence’s belongings and said she had moved elsewhere.
Both Desatge and Dawita blamed each other for Kaydence’s death.
Both Desatge and Dawita (pictured with Kaydenc) blamed each other for the children’s deaths.
The 45-year-old man said that when he arrived home he found the boy struggling to breathe and Dawita told him that Kaydence had fallen down the stairs.
“In convicting Desatge of murder, the Court rejected Desatge’s statements that he was not present when Kaydence suffered the injuries that led to her death,” the ruling states.
‘The court concluded that Desatge hit Kaydence on the head and face with the bamboo stick, causing her death.
‘In convicting Desatge of torture, the Court found that he intentionally inflicted severe pain or suffering on Kaydence before she died by hitting her on the head and face with the bamboo stick.’
