Kaydence Hazel Mills: Witnesses claims horror abuse before toddler’s death

‘She lived like an animal’: Witnesses close to Kaydence Hazel Mills claim the two-year-old was flogged with a cane, ate her own faeces and was covered in bruises before her alleged murder. *Warning: Distressing content

Witnesses close to Kaydence Hazel Mills have claimed she endured horrific abuse in her short life, as the two-year-old’s mother and stepfather are ordered to stand trial over the toddler’s alleged torture and murder.

The little girl’s skeletal remains were found at the Chinchilla weir in March 2020, more than two years after her death.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are warned that the following article contains an image of a person who is deceased.

Kaydence’s mother Sinitta Tammy Dawita and her boyfriend Tane Saul Desatge are each charged with murder, torture and misconduct of a corpse.

In a statement tendered to the Dalby Magistrates Court, one witness described how the toddler “lived like an animal”.

The statement said Kaydence would “regularly fall into the toilet” because there was no potty in the house, and said she would eat her own faeces, was flogged with a bamboo cane and had “deep red lines on her arms they had to cover up when she left the house”.

Kaydence Dawita Mills.

“She had a shaved head, bruises on her head, she was pink, purple and blue.”

The witness claims the toddler was abused every day and on more than one occasion she saw Mr Desatge hitting her with a stick while she says her mother “just accepted it”.

The court was told the last time they saw the two-year-old was when she was lying on the couch on a day between March 1, 2017 and October 20, 2017.

“Her eyes were closed, she was breathing but how a dog would breathe, and she was gone the next day,” the statement read.

The witness said Ms Dawita told them not to speak to anyone about Kaydence and threw out all of her belongings the following day.

Magistrate Kerrie O’Callaghan noted evidence alleging Ms Dawita provided different reasons for her daughter’s disappearance, telling friends and family she was either with her biological father, at a family friends or aunt's house.

Police will allege Mr Desatge said he returned home from playing the pokies one day to Kaydence on the couch, claiming she “hit her head falling down the stairs”.

Toddler Kaydence Dawita Mills’ stepfather Tane Desatge and mother Sinitta Mills have been ordered to stand trial over the two-year-old’s alleged murder.

He allegedly told police he didn’t kill her, but said he left her body on the couch for one to two days before Ms Dawita wrapped her up and the pair buried her at the Chinchilla weir.

Ms O’Callaghan said an autopsy showed the toddler had multiple fractures throughout her little body, which occurred prior to her death, and a skull fracture that happened either at the time of death or after.

The court heard that the bruises described by witnesses suggested she may have died from abdominal trauma.

Ms O’Callaghan ordered the pair be committed for trial in and upcoming sitting of the Toowoomba Supreme Court.

“There’s strong evidence of physical and emotional abuse and of Kaydence being an unwanted child,” she said.

Mr Desage and Ms Dawita, who are in custody and appeared by video link, declined the opportunity to speak at the hearing.