UPDATE: The mother of Kiesha Whippeart has been sentenced to to 22 and a half years – with a non parole period of 16 years – for the murder of her 6-year-old daughter in 2010.
In sentencing, Justice Ian Harrison said Kristi Abraham’s offence of murder lay “in the middle of the range”.
He said he couldn’t say beyond reasonable doubt that Abrahams wanted to kill her child, but that he could say the 30-year-old “intended to inflict grevious bodily harm”.
He also said Abrahams sentence was reduced by 10 per cent because she pleaded guilty in June.
Reports from the court suggest Abrahams did not react as she was being sentenced.
By MIA FREEDMAN
Little Kiesha Weippeart’s life ended in the most horrific way imaginable.
In 2010, the six year old’s mother, Kristi Anne Abrahams, punched her in the head with enough force to kill her.
But she did not die immediately.
She clung to life for 24 hours, enduring what must have been extraordinary pain and distress. Kiesha’s desperate, futile fight for life didn’t happen in a hospital but in the house where she was beaten. In full view of her mother and stepfather Robert Smith, neither of whom sought help for the little girl as she lay dying.
In fact they left her there for another week, before her stepfather stuffed her decomposing body into a suitcase and caught a taxi to bushland in Sydney’s west where he set Kiesha’s body on fire before burying it. And then he returned home to Kristi Anne and the couple’s two remaining children, a baby boy and a toddler daughter.
It would be another week before Kiesha’s name would become public.