By Sarah McPhee
Justin Stein has been jailed for life without parole for the murder of his partner’s nine-year-old daughter Charlise Mutten in the Blue Mountains, which a judge labelled a “shockingly callous crime of very great heinousness”.
Stein, 33, was found guilty by a jury in June of killing the schoolgirl, whose body was found in a barrel next to the Colo River in January 2022 with gunshot wounds to her face and back.
Justin Stein has been sentenced for the murder of his partner’s nine-year-old daughter Charlise Mutten.
Charlise, who lived with her grandparents in Tweed Heads, had been visiting her mother Kallista Mutten and her fiance, Stein, for the school holidays. Prosecutors said Stein shot Charlise at his family’s Mount Wilson estate, Wildenstein, while her mother was staying 1½ hours away at his caravan in Lower Portland.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Helen Wilson sentenced Stein to life imprisonment.
“This was a shockingly callous crime of very great heinousness. It was gravely reprehensible and extremely wicked,” the judge said.
“There is nothing to suggest that the offender is capable of any true empathy for others, such that his dangerousness might be restrained.”
Justin Stein was found guilty by a jury in June.Credit: Facebook
Wilson said the murder was as grave as possible. She said Charlise was shot before she could escape Stein, who then disposed of her body in a “disturbingly callous” way, filling the barrel with sand – including children’s play sand – in a “stunning act of grotesque cynicism”.
She said Stein gave a “wholly false account” and “gave every appearance of crying” in his evidence at trial, but from her view he “did not shed a single tear” and was using tissues as a prop.
The judge said Stein told elaborate and extravagant lies to conceal his crime, including pretending to search for Charlise, claiming he left her at the home with an auctioneer, or that his former criminal associates may have kidnapped her.
Wilson said the jury’s verdict was, in her opinion, “entirely correct” as an “overwhelming weight of evidence” established Stein’s guilt.
Charlise’s mother Kallista Mutten (centre).Credit: Kate Geraghty
Stein had tried to blame Kallista Mutten for the killing, claiming he heard her shoot her daughter. He admitted to disposing of Charlise’s body, but said he had “panicked” after finding it in the barrel on his ute.
In an emotional victim impact statement, Mutten said the false accusations had been “horrific”. She said she hated herself for putting her trust in the wrong person, and will miss Charlise’s unconditional love.
Clinton Mutten snr said his granddaughter was a “beautiful, caring, respectful, smart, thoughtful and loving person to all that knew her”.
The judge said Stein had shown no remorse, and had “limited to no prospects of improving himself in the future”.
Charlise’s disappearance sparked a widespread search before her body was discovered on January 18, 2022, the day she had been due to fly home.
Homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said investigators had been determined to get a result after Charlise’s “violent death” in “horrendous circumstances”.
Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.