Monster Daniel Holdom has history of sickening attacks on women

THE sex offender who murdered a toddler and dumped her ­remains on the side of highway in a suitcase after killing her young mum and leaving her in Belanglo State Forest had brutally ­assaulted women before. Here is his horror rap sheet.

THE man who murdered Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her young daughter­ Khandalyce can today be revealed as a serial abuser, who strangled one woman, stalked another and sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl.

One of Daniel James Holdom’s brutal assaults, during which he tried to choke a woman and then smother her with duct tape, was eerily similar to the way he would eventually kill two-year-old Khandalyce almost a ­decade later.

Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson.

Karlie with daughter Khandalyce.

The Daily Telegraph can at last publish details of the 43-year-old’s horrific rap sheet after the former drug addict pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering Ms Pearce-Stevenson, 20, in Belanglo State Forest and later discarding her daughter’s body inside a suitcase on the side of a South Australian highway.

Daniel Holdom has pleaded guilty to murdering a mother in Belanglo State Forest before killing her two-year-old daughter.

While their remains were found 1200km apart they were laid to rest together in Alice Springs three years ago.

“We are very happy with the news,” Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s family said in a statement given to the Telegraph after Holdom’s admission.

In the NSW Supreme Court detectives were heard sighing with relief after Holdom, his left hand in a bandage, pleaded guilty just a week before what was expected to be a lengthy murder trial was due to start.

Outside court, investigators shook hands and hugged one another, marking the end of a disturbing chapter that began with Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s murder in 2008.

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Officer in charge Sergeant Darren Gunn (far right) and detectives leave the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney after Daniel Holdom pleaded guilty. Picture: Emma Partridge

HORROR ASSAULT

But before Holdom, who was in a relationship with Ms Pearce-Stevenson, killed the mother and daughter and disposed of their bodies, he left a trail of other women fearing for their lives.

Holdom assaulted a woman in 1999.

He crept into her room and tried to smother her with a pillow before ­attempting to strangle her.

Holdom also tried to put duct tape over her mouth to suppress her screams.

The assault, for which he was convicted in 2000, is horrifyingly similar to the murder of Khandalyce, affectionately known as “Khandles”.

Police made a breakthrough when DNA linked Karlie and Khandalyce’s remains. They then appealed to the public using a suitcase and clothing found belonging to the little girl.

After leaving Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s body in Belanglo State Forest in the NSW Southern Highlands, which gained a ­notorious reputation as serial killer Ivan Milat’s dumping ground, Holdom picked up Khandalyce from Canberra.

HELPLESS LITTLE GIRL

Before he checked into a Narrandera motel with the toddler on December 19, 2008, he stopped at a Woolworths supermarket and bought duct tape, dish cloths and garbage bags.

Khandalyce was likely suffocated before her body was shoved in a black suitcase with some of her clothes, driven to South Australia and callously thrown on the side of the ­Karoonda Hwy, 2km outside the tiny town of Wynarka.

Clothing found in the suitcase with Khandalyce’s remains. Picture: SAPOL

It was almost seven years before a passing motorist discovered the skeleton in July 2015.

Holdom also has a conviction for breaching an apprehended violence order in 2001.

Court records show how he stalked the terrified woman in his car, waiting outside her home.

And on another occasion, in Coffs Harbour, he followed her to a children’s day care and school, screaming at her before blocking the road so she couldn’t get away.

Daniel Holdom at Maitland court in 2015. Illustration: Bernd Heinrich

Holdom had a history of violence against women.

Over the next decade Holdom led a nomadic existence, travelling from state to state and leaving a record of petty crime and grief in his wake.

In September 2008, Holdom was behind the wheel of a car when it crashed between Alice Springs and Adelaide, leaving his female passenger wheelchair-bound and her two children dead.

FATAL ARGUMENT

Just two months later, Holdom, Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce left Alice Springs and went to stay in Canberra’s northern suburbs.

After the pair argued, Holdom murdered Ms Pearce-Stevenson in the Belanglo State Forest on December 14 or 15, 2008.

The court had heard he later told a friend that he stomped on Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s throat and crushed her windpipe.

He even took sickening photographs of her body “as a trophy of sorts” that another woman found years later on an SD card.

Photos of mother and daughter at their funeral in Alice Springs in December 2015.

Prosecutor Victoria Engel last year said that Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s identity was stolen and Holdom had her credit card for years after her death, during which time ­numerous benefit payments continued and $71,770 was debited from her account.

He also was allegedly ­involved in sending messages from Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s phone to her mother Colleen Povey in a bid to halt any police investigations into her and her daughter’s disappearance.

In April 2013 Holdom sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl at a NSW Central Coast caravan site.

He was serving a maximum four-year jail term for the sexual assault when police charged him in 2015 over the double murder.

Holdom is expected to face a sentencing hearing on September 28.