Hillier triple murderer Steven Graham Peet to serve 30-year non-parole period for killing a mother and her two children
THE man who beat a young mother to death before fatally binding and gagging her two children will serve at least 30 years in jail — five years less than SA’s last triple murderer.
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THE man who beat a young mother to death before fatally binding and gagging her two children will serve at least 30 years in jail — five years less than SA’s last triple murderer.
On Friday, the Supreme Court sentenced Steven Graham Peet to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years.
Justice Malcolm Blue dubbed the murders of Adeline Yvette Wilson-Rigney, Amber Rose Rigney and Korey Lee Mitchell were “incomprehensible” and “reprehensible”.
However, he deemed Peet’s guilty pleas — after months of delay caused by his claims of mental impairment — and remorse were worth a sentence reduction of almost 10 per cent.
In contrast, triple murderer Jason Alexander Downie was jailed for life with a 35-year non-parole period for his crimes at Kapunda in 2010.
Unlike Peet, Downie was still a teenager both at the time of the murders and when he was sentenced — and none of his victims were young children.
The court’s decision — which prompted the children’s grandfather to leave the court in anger — is expected to reignite debate over the sentencing of multiple murderers.
Last month, the Homicide Victim Support Group called for an overhaul that would see such killers serve consecutive life terms, as happens in some US jurisdictions.
Peet, 32, murdered the family at their Hillier home on May 30, 2016.
Ms Wilson-Rigney, 28 — who had been in a relationship with Peet — was beaten with a crowbar and strangled with a cable tie, and her body left under a mattress in the laundry.
Amber, 6, had a cable tie around her neck and had been hogtied, with a sock taped into her mouth, and left under a pile of clothes.
The body of Korey, 5, was found in his room under a play tent — he, too, had been tied up but had managed to remove the sock from his mouth before he died.
All three died around the time two Families SA workers, who had been dealing with the family, knocked on the door of the house.
They had attended to tell Ms Wilson-Rigney they had secured furniture for the children.
Peet confessed his involvement to multiple people in the hours following the murders, including a 000 operator and two men who assaulted him when they found the bodies.
Despite those admissions, he pleaded not guilty to Ms Wilson-Rigney’s murder when his trial began in August last year.
He claimed he was not criminally liable for the children’s deaths because he was in a “disassociative state” at the time.
Peet blamed that state on Ms Wilson-Rigney, claiming she had subjected him to domestic violence during their relationship.
His claim, which caught prosecutors off-guard, prompted a five-month delay in the case while mental health experts were consulted.
During that time, Amber and Korey’s paternal grandparents lost faith in “heartless” prosecutors who had, they said, shown an “appalling lack of empathy” toward them.
When his trial resumed in January, Peet pleaded guilty to having murdered the children — the court heard expert analysis did not bear out his purported disassociation.
Psychological reports, subsequently released to The Advertiser, showed Peet’s own account of the incident was incompatible with his claim and had derailed it.
Prosecutors asked Peet be sentenced on the basis he had murdered the children because they were eyewitnesses to their mother’s death.
Peet’s counsel doubled down on the domestic violence claim, saying he suffered from “battered wife’s syndrome” and had finally “reacted” to the abuse he endured.
The children’s grandparents, meanwhile, urged the court to “do justice for our beautiful angels”, saying the murders had effectively killed them as well.
In sentencing on Friday, Justice Blue paid tribute to the families’ statements, and said listening to them was “a very moving and profound experience”.
He said he was satisfied Peet had told the truth about the troubled, sometimes violent nature of his relationship with Ms Wilson-Rigney, and his account of her death.
“Largely as a result of your epilepsy and your upbringing, you are generally timid and unassertive — but are prone to outbursts of temper and violence,” he said.
He said Peet had a prior history of violent offending, including an incident in 2008 when he beat a hospital patient with a fire extinguisher.
Peet told police at the time he had intended to kill the patient, who had stolen his car and crashed it while Peet himself was in the same hospital.
“There was no premeditation in the conventional sense, nevertheless your actions (toward Ms Wilson-Rigney) were deliberate,” he said.
“Her conduct toward you is no excuse for your deplorable conduct — she was only 28 when you took away her life.”
Justice Blue said there was also no excuse for the murders of Amber and Korey.
“It’s obviously very difficult for anyone to comprehend how a person in your position could kill a six-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy in the manner you did,” he said.
“Your killing them was a senseless and incomprehensible act.”
He said mental health experts had concluded Peet was not in a disassociative state but may have experienced “some disassociation” at the time.
That, he said was not unusual in such horrific circumstances.
“I’m satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that you were experiencing a degree of disassociation when you killed the children,” he said.
“However, that did not prevent you from forming an intention to commit what was clearly an extremely reprehensible act.”
When Justice Blue imposed the 30-year non-parole period, Mr Ebgerts — the children’s grandfather — stood up in the public gallery and left court.
He and another man hurled abuse at Peet as the hearing concluded.
WORST OF THE WORST: SA’S LONGEST NON-PAROLE PERIODS
John Justin Bunting and Robert Joe Wagner: life without parole for the “bodies in the barrels” serial killings in the 1990s.
Mark Errin Rust: life without parole — due to his uncontrollable sexual urges — for the murders of Maya Jakic and Megumi Suzuki in the 1990s.
Dieter Pfennig: life with a combined 60-year non-parole period for the murders of Louise Bell in 1983 and Michael Black in 1989.
Jason Alexander Downie: life with a 35-year non-parole period for the 2010 murders of Andrew, Rose and Chantelle Rowe.
Jean Eric Gassy: life with a 34-year non-parole period for the 2002 assassination of Dr Margaret Tobin.
Angelika Gavare: life with a 32-year non-parole period for the 2008 dismemberment murder of pensioner Vonne McGlynn.
Garry John Collie: life with a 30-year non-parole period for the murders of two people during an early 2000s drug deal.
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