Source : Perth Now news
Warning: Distressing content.
A man who killed his partner’s young daughter in a “vicious” and “wicked” murder likened to an “execution” has been convicted of unrelated child abuse material and firearm offences.
Justin Stein was in 2024 jailed for life without the possibility of parole over the murder of nine-year-old Charlise Mutten.
A Supreme Court jury found Stein guilty of killing the young girl at some point in a 14 or 15-hour period between the evening of January 11 and the morning of January 12, 2022.
Justice Helen Wilson said the shot to Charlise’s face, fired from about 30cm away, amounted to an “execution”.
Stein lied to his former fiance Kallisa Mutten by pretending to look for Charlise when he was preparing to dispose of her body.
Justice Helen Wilson said Stein had lied to his former fiance Kallista Mutten by pretending to look for Charlise while he was preparing to dispose of her corpse.
He also perjured himself when he lied on the witness stand, had not shown any remorse and had a bleak prospect of rehabilitation, Justice Wilson said while handing down the life sentence.
Stein was last week sentenced in the NSW District Court over two separate counts of possessing child abuse material, two counts of possessing an unauthorised firearm, possessing ammunition without holding a license, and stealing less than $60,000 during an aggravated break and entry in company.
Two further unregistered firearm possession charges were also taken into account.
He was handed down an overall term of two years and six months imprisonment over the separate crimes.
Stein will still remain behind bars forever regardless for the murder of Charlise.
Justice Wilson described Stein’s actions as “unspeakably vicious” when sentencing him for Charlise’s murder, noting the nine-year-old girl called him “daddy” and hoped would he would be the father she never had.
“This was a shockingly callous crime of very great heinousness; it was gravely reprehensible and extremely wicked,” Justice Wilson said.
Stein killed Charlise at his family’s Mount Wilson property in early 2022 before he wrapped her body and dumped it in a barrel near the Colo River.
Charlise had lived with her grandparents in Tweed Heads and travelled to Sydney days before Christmas 2021 to spend the holidays with her mother.
It remains unknown exactly when Stein killed the young girl.
The court was previously told there were unexplained features of the crime that Charlise’s underwear was missing when her body was discovered.
“When her body was recovered on 18 January 2022, Charlise was dressed in the same clothes her mother had last seen her wearing, with the exception of her underpants, which were missing,” Justice Wilson said.
Charlise was also found with Mr Stein’s schizophrenia medication – Quetiapine – in her system, but Justice Wilson could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that Stein had given her the drug.
Stein will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
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