Stepdad’s sick act before toddler’s murder

WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that this article contains mentions of deceased persons.

A man neglected, flogged and abused his two-year-old stepdaughter because he disliked her – forcing her to eat her own faeces before he murdered her and dumped her remains near a weir.

Tane Saul Desatge was found guilty earlier this week during a judge-only trial of murdering and torturing Kaydence Hazel Mills – the daughter of his then-girlfriend Sinitta Sinitta Tammy Dawita – between February 16 and May 6, 2017.

The two-year-old’s body was found buried near the Chinchilla weir, in regional Queensland, in March 2020, wrapped in garbage bags and a blanket.

Desatge, 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment at Toowoomba Supreme Court on Thursday.

He will be eligible to apply for parole in 2042.

Ms Dawita, 32, was found not guilty of her daughter’s murder and the alternative count of manslaughter, and not guilty of torture.

In a published judgment upon returning his verdict, Supreme Court Justice Paul Cooper said the pair commenced a relationship in 2015 and were living in a unit in Chinchilla by 2016.

Kaydence was the biological daughter of Ms Dawita and another man, Robert Mills.

Justice Cooper said Desatge held “animosity” towards Mr Mills which influenced his treatment of Kaydence.

The child would be left unclothed and would sleep in the toilet after being confined there by Desatge, he said.

At other times, Kaydence was made to eat her own faeces by Desatge.

Justice Cooper said the child was beaten with a bamboo stick in the face and head during toilet training – the beatings becoming so severe she was last seen lying on a red couch not breathing properly.

Kaydence’s death could not be ascertained but an autopsy found it could likely have been from a severe blow to the base of her skull.

Justice Cooper said there was evidence she had suffered a rib fracture at least a week prior to her death.

“The defendants concealed her death: first, by wrapping the body and placing it in an outhouse in the backyard of the house they lived in Chinchilla; then, subsequently, burying the body at the Chinchilla weir,” a summary of Justice Cooper’s judgment states.

Justice Cooper said the pair then disposed of Kaydence’s belongings and said she had gone to live elsewhere.

Both Desatge and Dawita blamed each other for Kaydence’s death.

The 45-year-old had claimed he came home to find the child having difficulty breathing and was told by Dawita 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 which led to her death,” the judgment states.

“The Court drew an inference that Desatge hitting Kaydence on the head and face with the bamboo stick caused 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.”