A man has been found guilty of torturing and killing his three-year-old stepdaughter, while the girl’s mother has been cleared of the same charges.
Kaydence Mills’ mother, Sinitta Tammy Dawita, and fiance Tane Saul Desatge were charged with murder and torture after the little girl’s body was found at Chinchilla Weir, about 300 kilometres west of Brisbane, in March 2020.
Police at Chinchilla Weir, where they found the remains of three-year-old Kaydence Dawita Mills.Credit: Nine News Queensland
The pair had pleaded not guilty, but on Tuesday in Toowoomba Supreme Court, Justice Sean Cooper ruled Desatge had tortured and murdered Kaydence in 2017.
He found Dawita not guilty of murder and torture.
Kaydence had been subjected to escalating violence before her death, with her stepfather frequently hitting the three-year-old with a bamboo stick.
Family members told Cooper during the judge-alone trial that more and more bruises, often in a straight line, appeared on the little girl, and she was repeatedly forced to eat her own faeces.
Kaydence was last seen alive lying on a red couch at the family’s home, with bruises on her head and face. Her eyes were closed and she was not moving, the court was told.
Desatge claimed he came home and found Kaydence had fallen down the stairs, causing her injuries, and that Dawita refused to let him call an ambulance or take her to hospital.
But Cooper did not accept this.
Source Agencies
