Daughters of love triangle murder victim Steven Hinrichsen call for long jail term for mother

The young daughters of a murder victim have faced his killer – their “evil, selfish” mother – in court, disowned her and called for her to serve a long jail term.

The young daughters of a woman who conspired with her lover to kill her husband have disowned her in court, urging a judge to jail her – and demanding she never speak to them again.

On Wednesday the daughters, whose names are suppressed, told the Supreme Court they had been forever traumatised by the “evil, selfish” actions of their mother, Tanya.

They said that, by plotting the murder of their father Steven with her lover and his friend, she had voided all right to being part of their futures.

“It was a lot to comprehend, distressing and very traumatic, the horrifying way you ended his life,” one daughter, 16, said.

“You’ve put me in a position where I’m embarrassed to have you as my mum … I want you to know I’m disappointed and ashamed to have you as my mum.”

“I want you to understand the impact you’ve had with your selfish and horrific crime.”

A photo of murder victim Steven Hinrichsen that was found smashed and left on top of his body. Picture: Courts SA.

Her sister, 17, said she was “horrified by the things done” to her father by her mother’s co-offenders, Gavin Scott Skinner and Robert John Thrupp.

“I cannot believe someone could be so cruel and evil … I want it clear I want nothing more to do with you,” she told Hinrichsen.

“I hope the judge makes sure you stay in prison for a very long time for the trauma you have caused me and a lot of other people.”

Mr Hinrichsen’s adult daughters, Tanya Lister and Lisa Hinrichsen, agreed.

Ms Lister said the killers had robbed her of any chance of reconciling with their father, while Ms Hinrichson said she was giving birth at the time of the murder.

“My son and my father share a date for very different reasons,” she said.

“Tanya Hinrichsen, you have been in my life since I was about 12 and you now mean nothing to me … you didn’t care about the consequences for his children, and you still don’t.”

A jury found Hinrichsen, 43, and Skinner, 46, guilty of murdering Mr Hinrichsen at Morphett Vale on December 15, 2018.

Jurors found their co-accused, Robert John Thrupp, 47, guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Gavin Scott Skinner and Tanya Hinrichsen (left and centre) were found guilty of murder, while Robert John Thrupp was found guilty of manslaughter over the death of Steven Hinrichsen. Pictures: Nine News

The trial heard Mr Hinrichsen was beaten and stabbed for being “an inconvenience and an impediment” to his wife’s relationship with Skinner.

It also heard Hinrichsen and Skinner “wanted to be together, and desperately so” and, in their “exasperation and bitterness”, sought to end their “tense, triangular relationship”.

A day before the murder, Skinner sent Hinrichsen a text saying he was “ready to go on a hunting spree” and she replied, giving her “permission” to act.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Carmen Matteo said Hinrichsen has given her co-offenders access to both her house and her husband, as well as permission to act.

She said Mr Hinrichsen was, as a wheelchair user, “particularly vulnerable” and “effectively incapable of defending himself” from Skinner and Thrupp.

“She was an accessory to a murder that can be described as gratuitous … there was no need, in her domestic circumstances, for the deceased to be killed,” she said.

“She was not satisfied with leaving the marriage or repudiating the relationship … that was not sufficient (for her).”

Counsel for Tanya Hinrichsen called for mercy, saying their client was both not present and asleep at the time of the murder.

They said that, had she been present, she would have “defused” the situation.

Counsel for Thrupp, meanwhile, said their client accepted the jury’s verdict but maintained he had never entered the house and inflicted no injuries upon Mr Hinrichsen.

They said Thrupp had been “drawn into the vortex” of Skinner’s hatred for Mr Hinrichsen.

Justice Sophie David will sentence the trio next week.