Killed Kyhesha-Lee’s abusive dad ‘didn’t give a s***’ as his daughter died
A FATHER who admitted to the manslaughter of his daughter Kyhesha-Lee “wanted coffee and smokes” when she lay motionless and started turning blue.
A BRISBANE father who has admitted the manslaughter of his three-year-old daughter bashed her, locked her in a room, and was more interested in coffee and cigarettes than saving her life, a court has heard.
Matthew Lee Williamson is being sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court over the death of Kyhesha-Lee Joughin, who died in March 2013 after suffering protracted physical and sexual abuse.
The court heard detailed evidence from Williamson’s former housemate, Christopher Kent, who previously spent 19 months in jail after also pleading guilty to Kyhesha’s manslaughter.
Kent recounted how he tried to revive Kyhesha after noticing her lips were turning blue and tried to wake Williamson to ask him to help as he slept on a nearby couch.
“He didn’t give a s***,” Kent said. “He just wanted his coffee and smoke.”
During several hours of evidence, Kent said he had never physically or sexually assaulted Kyhesha and blamed Williamson for the girl’s death.
Williamson’s defence team has argued Kent inflicted the fatal injuries.
During a triple-zero call on the afternoon of March 30, 2013, Williamson said he woke to find his daughter not breathing and stiff as if she had rigor mortis.
Kyhesha died from an infected internal injury.
At the time of her death she had bruising on her face, lacerations on her ear, an injury to her temple and cuts to her lip, and had suffered a stomach injury consistent with a blow from a fist or foot or an adult falling on her.
Williamson said Kyhesha had been injured when Kent slipped and fell on her three days earlier.
Kent told the court he had tripped and accidentally hit the child with his knee.
He said he witnessed regular physical abuse of the three-year-old while living with the father and daughter at a Petrie unit.
In the weeks before her death, Williamson punched her in the belly and would hold her arm and smack her, Kent said.
“It was like two adults fighting,” he said.
He said Williamson, who generally slept through the day, would lock his daughter in her bedroom for hours on end and would become enraged when she then ended up throwing her faeces inside the room.
When detectives searched the house following Kyhesha’s death, they noted a strong smell of urine.
Kent said on the day Kyhesha died, while he was clearing a bong, an ice pipe, needles and empty beer bottle from the share house, he found a photograph of Williamson resting his penis on his daughter’s shoulder.
But no photos were found during subsequent searches, the court heard.
The hearing continues before Justice Roslyn Atkinson.
