Tia Minhinnick confesses to torturing, killing his disabled mum Ange Huata at Springvale home
A son has confessed to torturing and killing his mother in their Springvale home during a savage 90-minute attack, before her body was discovered naked inside his bedroom.
Police & Courts
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A son has confessed to torturing and killing his mother in their Springvale home.
Tia Minhinnick, then aged 20, brutally beat his mother Ange Huata, 40, in a savage 90 minute attack which left her with fatal injuries consistent with being in a car crash.
The Supreme Court on Monday heard the disabled mother-of-five was found naked in her son’s bedroom, with band aids and a bandage covering multiple lacerations to her head and face the morning of February 10, 2022.
The court heard Minhinnick, a heavy drug and alcohol user, drank Wild Turkey in the backyard of their Glendale Rd home with a mate and housemates before heading out to a pool hall in Springvale the night of the murder.
He was intoxicated and punched and headbutted his mate before returning home before 11pm.
His housemates later returned, finding Minhinnick yelling and standing over his mother who was on the loungeroom floor bleeding from the forehead.
The court heard one housemate tried to defuse the situation and was told by Minhinnick “Do you want me to f***ing kill you?” before both retreated into their rooms until the next day.
The attack on Ms Huata, from New Zealand, spanned across the house and escalated in the garage.
She suffered 29 rib fractures, a punctured lung, lacerations across her body, burst ear drums and a brain injury.
A forensic pathologist identified sharp force injuries caused by an unknown weapon and a pelvic injury likely caused by Minhinnick forcefully stomping or dropping a knee on that part of her body.
Ms Huata’s mother Anna stared down her grandson in court, saying “You tortured your mother”.
“I am heartbroken. All I want to do is hold and hug and kiss my oldest child,” she said.
The court heard Minhinnick texted his girlfriend Natalie Jensen, then 18, from 12:50am that night messages including: “I’m scared. I think I went too far” and “I just want to get her to bed. She doesn’t breathe but every time I move her, she breathes”.
Ms Jensen came to the house, helped clean up Ms Huata’s blood while her boyfriend holed up inside his room where his mother’s naked lifeless body lay in his bed.
Minhinnick fled the house about noon after his housemates left the property.
Ms Jensen stayed, lying to police that she had just arrived at the house to find the front door and flywire open and Ms Huata unconscious with her one-year-old daughter nearby.
Paramedics arrived soon after, declaring Ms Huata had been dead for several hours.
Ms Jensen was later charged with perjury and given a six-month good behaviour bond without conviction for lying to police.
Police arrested Minhinnick at Southern Cross Station four days after his mother’s murder.
He claimed he had no knowledge of his mother’s death and had spent the previous few nights sleeping at a friend’s house and a park.
The court heard Minhinnick was subjected to violence throughout his childhood, was homeless by the age of 13 and turned to drugs including cannabis and methamphetamine to cope.
He suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder and pervasive depressive disorder.
Minhinnick had a history of violence against his mother, who suffered a degenerative neurological disorder which made her weak and unsteady on her feet.
Barrister Tim Marsh said Minhinnick is remorseful and accepts responsibility for his actions.
“He understands he has done a terrible thing,” Mr Marsh said.
Minhinnick will be sentenced for murder at a later date.
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