Why Chinchilla couple accused of murdering toddler should be found not guilty, court hears
‘Not guilty’: The lawyers of a Queensland couple accused of torturing a little girl, who was allegedly held captive in a toilet and forced to eat her own waste and drink toilet water, have told a judge why the pair are not guilty of the toddler’s murder.
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Seven years after missing Queensland toddler Kaydence Mills was allegedly tortured, killed, and discarded in garbage bags on the Western Downs in an unmarked grave, a judge may take months to rule on whether or not she was murdered.
The prosecution alleges the inhumane treatment of Kaydence from her caregivers, who “treated the little girl worse than an animal,” undoubtedly led to her death in early 2017.
The two-year-old girl’s mother Sinitta Dawita, 32, and Tane Desatge, 44, stood trial before Justice Sean Cooper at the Toowoomba Supreme Court from July 22 to August 8, 2024.
They pleaded not guilty to murder and torture, however, they did plead guilty to interfering with the child’s body sometime in 2017 between February and May.
Left to die “alone without support” and “suffer horribly”
The former North Queensland couple are accused of murdering the toddler shortly after their family relocated to Chinchilla from Tully in late 2016.
Kaydence had only been living with the pair since September 2016, and before that, the court heard she was a healthy toddler meeting all her milestones.
The judge-only trial was told in the hours before her death, the malnourished child lay on a red couch, struggled to breathe, and her face was covered in various types of bruises.
Crown prosecutor Michael Lehane alleged a month or so before Kaydence died she slept alone and naked on a toilet floor, and that Desatge often beat her with a bamboo stick, and that Dawita would use her hand.
He said if the child left the home, she was covered head to toe to cover her bruises and wore a hat at night.
A witness told the court in the lead-up to Kaydence’s death, a frustrated and enraged Desatge would force the child to eat her own “business” as a form of punishment if she had an accident or to make her stop crying.
On one occasion, the court heard Desatge forced a pregnant Dawita to spoonfeed Kaydence faeces at knifepoint.
Full details on Crown case HERE.
“Holes” in Crown case against accused
During the weeks-long trial, the court heard Dawita and Desatge, who were in a domestically violent relationship, blamed each other for the toddler’s death.
The pair’s respective legal teams said the prosecution could not prove how the child died, who was present at the time, any intention to kill, or that alleged forms of “excessive discipline” were done with the intent to kill.
They said there was no evidence put forward, especially from medical professionals, to support the prosecution’s chief argument that Kaydence died as a result of her neglect, abuse, and mistreatment.
The defendant’s barristers said the fact the pair went shopping for a shovel and garbage bags the day after Kaydence’s death showed they did not plan to kill the child.
The court heard while shopping in Dalby, the pair went to the pokies while Kaydence’s body lay in a foetal position wrapped in a white floral bedsheet in the garage at 10 Inverai Rd, Chinchilla.
Cause of death unknown
Kaydence was missing for two years before police began investigating her disappearance in 2019.
The court was told the girl’s family no longer spoke of her after she “went to live with an aunty”, and all her possessions were taken to the dump – along with the shovel and tarp used to dispose of her body.
After an extensive two-month covert operation involving undercover investigators, Kaydence’s body was recovered from the Chinchilla Weir on March 3, 2020, after Desatge told officers the pair buried her during a “camping trip”.
Forensic analysis of the remains showed Kaydence had a skull fracture caused by a significant direct or indirect force that occurred before or shortly after her death.
She also had a days or weeks-old rib fracture.
The court heard the exact cause and time of Kaydence’s death could not be ascertained, however the Crown alleged Desatge was seen beating her with the bamboo stick the night before she was seen struggling to breath on the couch.
DESATGE’S DEFENCE
“Grasping at Straws”
On the final day of the 11-day trial on Tuesday, August 8, Desatge’s barrister Frank Martin told the court the idea and motive that his client took his grievances out on a two-year-old girl was an “implausible and extraordinary” stretch of logic.
Several Crown witnesses told the court they observed Desatge treat Kaydence differently from her siblings, a few heard him speak of his dislike of the child’s biological dad, and another that Tane said he didn’t like Kaydence because of her dad.
The court heard Desatge’s hatred of the man stemmed from an alleged assault that put him in hospital, which was carried out by Kaydence’s father’s family or friends.
It was not heard in court if Kaydence’s father or his associates were ever charged, nor did the man’s formal admissions tendered to the court mention the assault allegation.
Mr Martin said the inference that the incident showed Desatge had a motive to kill the child was the Crown “grasping at straws,” noting there was no ill-treatment of the child while they were living in Tully.
Stepdad alleges child fell down stairs
Mr Martin said what Desatge told undercover investigators in February 2020, about Kaydence’s last hours was the truth and Dawita was responsible for her death.
In the covert police recordings played to the court, after multiple probes, Desatge conceded he and Dawita buried Kaydence about a day after she fell down some stairs.
Desatge said after he came home from playing the pokies Dawita told him Kaydence had a fall, and he saw she wasn’t breathing normally, her eyes were rolled back into her head, and she wasn’t responsive.
He said he urged Dawita to call an ambulance or take Kaydence to the hospital, but she refused out of fear that her children would be taken off her.
Desatge said he never touched the body, and he only dug a hole in hard clay so animals couldn’t get to it.
“Domestic violence card”
Mr Martin said just because Desatge was a domestic violence offender, did not mean he was guilty of murder, and said perhaps Dawita was “playing the domestic violence card,” in a “tit for tat” relationship.
Mr Martin drew the judge’s attention to the evidence of Dawita’s former partner of six years (not Kaydence’s father) who told the court she was quick to anger.
The court heard at the time, a stressed Dawita was looking after two children under the age of two when she was 18-19-year’s old.
Mr Martin said in the years following Kaydence’s death, Dawita was collecting Centrelink payments for her until police cancelled it in early 2020 during the covert operation.
Mr Martin said there was sufficient reasonable doubt, and issues with the reliability of witnesses the Crown relied upon, for Desatge to be found not guilty of murder and torture.
DAWITA’S DEFENCE
Barrister David Jones KC said there were too many “holes” in the Crown’s case and the lack of evidence meant Dawita could not be convicted of murder, pointing to Desatge as the primary offender.
He said Desatge was known to be violent and abusive, noting police were called to the home months after Kaydence died after Desatge came home drunk, dragged her from bed, and beat her.
Mr Jones said in regards to the torture charge, the Crown could not prove if she carried out the acts at all, or wilfully did so, “as opposed to being driven by fear or to ensure to one degree or another Desatge’s rage lay dormant”.
He said Dawita had little to no reprieve from the domestic violence that plagued the household and if she did stand up to a violent Desatge, “there was a price to pay”.
“If there’s any criticism of why she didn’t stand up and do more, she was pregnant with another child at the time,” he said.
“Her presence carried little to no currency. He did not require any aid or assistance.”
Mr Jones said there was no “blueprint” for how DV victims should act, noting Dawita was an Indigenous woman and recovered addict who was a victim of serious assaults, homelessness and was removed from her family support network.
He said Dawita was treated like a “second class citizen,” and the power imbalance was clear given Desatge had bought home a woman and introduced her to Dawita as his “new girlfriend”.
“True to god I will hunt you down and break your f--king neck.”
Mr Jones said one scenario consistent with the medical evidence and Desatge’s observations was that Kaydence died of the skull fracture, whether she was hit forcibly with the bamboo stick, or had her neck broken.
He noted during the Crown case, Desatge was heard or recorded threatening to kill Dawita by breaking her neck, labelling it as the man’s favourite threat while “low and behold” Kaydence lay nearby “in a hole in the ground with a broken neck”.
He said medical evidence also supported the possibility that Desatge’s “weapon of choice,” the bamboo stick, could have caused the fracture at the base of her skull, and questioned why it “vanished” along with the little girl.
Mr Martin disagreed the stick vanished, rather it hadn’t been seen again.
Mr Jones alleged the disdain Desatge had for Kaydence because of the alleged beating at the say of her father, echoed by witnesses, was most evident in the man’s own words captured when the pair’s phones were wiretapped.
While investigators dug up the pair’s backyard in December 2019 looking for Kaydence, Mr Jones said the following “unguarded and honest” statement reflected his disgust and hate for Kaydence.
“I told those motherf--kers… that dying little c--t had a fit”.
He said the Crown’s allegation that Dawita had a motive to kill Kaydence because of what the child’s father did to her in the past, and allegedly getting Desatge bashed, didn’t align with how well she treated Kaydence in Tully which was supported by witnesses.
Mr Jones said she lied about Kaydence being with family, not because she was guilty of murder, or simply because she didn’t want her children taken from her, but rather because she was gaslit and scared of not being believed.
What now?
Justice Sean Cooper has reserved his decision and no time frame of the verdicts was given to the court.
They have spent more than 1000 days in custody on remand since their arrest in March 2020.
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Originally published as Why Chinchilla couple accused of murdering toddler should be found not guilty, court hears
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