Mother of murder victim Eden Kennett stares down daughter’s killer Bradley Wayne Trussell

A mother has stared down her daughter’s brutal murderer and addressed him directly during an emotional and powerful moment in the Supreme Court.

A mother has looked her daughter’s murderer in the eye and told him “I hate you”.

Murder victim Eden Kennett’s mother, Tammy Simpson, delivered a powerful victim impact statement in the Supreme Court on Monday.

As she began, she turned directly to Bradley Wayne Trussell and said “I hate you”.

“Your childish temper tantrums took my daughter’s life,” she said. “You didn’t just take my daughter’s life, you destroyed other people’s lives too.”

Trussell, 30, beat Ms Simpson’s 25-year-old daughter to death at their Mount Gambier home in December 2018.

Ms Simpson described her ongoing anguish at memory of seeing her daughter “beaten, battered, bruised, lifeless, hooked up to machines injecting her with stuff” in hospital.

“I am haunted by these memories, it affects every aspect of my life,” she said.

“I have cried every day since you took my daughter’s life”.

Tammy Simpson holds a picture of her daughter Eden Kennett, who was murdered, outside the Supreme Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Outside court, she said Trussell was an “embarrassment to men” and a “waste of oxygen”.

“My daughter’s love for him got her killed … I hope he never gets out.”

She pleaded with other victims of domestic violence to find a way to escape to avoid the same fate as her “very beautiful, caring” daughter.

“She is 25 forever … she is just beautiful and she did not deserve that,” she said.

Trussell dropped Ms Kennett at hospital unconscious, bruised from head-to-toe and frothing at the mouth. A day later she was declared brain dead.

She suffered a fatal injury to her liver caused by blunt force trauma and had head trauma, fractured ribs and more than 40 bruises.

Domestic violence and murder victim Eden Kennett.

An “embarrassment to men” … murderer Bradley Wayne Trussell.

Justice Anne Bampton, who presided over the trial in the absence of a jury, found Trussell guilty of murder. Prior to the trial he pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter.

In other victim impact statements, close friend and self-appointed aunt of Ms Kennett, Viki Coad, and Ms Kennett’s sister, Charnna Simpson, each described their anger, sorrow, sadness and overwhelming despair at the loss of Ms Kennett.

Michael Foundas, prosecuting, said Mr Trussell perpetrated “sustained abuse” upon Ms Kennett, who had “quite a number of injuries across her body”.

He said Mr Trussell had tried to “downplay” his role in the offending “by putting some blame on Ms Kennett where it doesn’t belong”.

Tammy Simpson says she “cries every day” after the domestic violence murder of her daughter Eden Kennett. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

The court heard Trussell had previously served a jail term in Queensland for domestic violence-related offending,

Nick Vadasz, for Trussell, said his client was genuinely remorseful and contrite, a claim Mr Foundas disputed.

Mr Vadasz said Trussell’s offending was “not entirely of the prisoner’s making” because Ms Kennett had also been violent towards Mr Trussell during their “toxic relationship”, which could mitigate his role in the offending.

He urged the court to consider imposing a non-parole period lower than the 20-year mandatory minimum for murder.

Trussell, who has lodged an appeal against his conviction, will be sentenced next month. He faces a mandatory life sentence for murder, with his non-parole period yet to be set.