A woman accused with her fiance of murdering her three-year-old daughter will face trial without a jury due to what a judge described as a risk of prejudicial testimony. The body of Kaydence Mills was found at the Chinchilla Weir, about 300km west of Brisbane, in March 2020. Detectives uncovered the remains days after charging Kaydence’s mother Sinitta Dawita, then aged 28, with her murder. Dawita’s fiancé Tane Desatge, then aged 40, was also charged with murder.
Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns in Brisbane on Wednesday granted the application, finding that jury members would be unlikely to disregard some of what they heard about in a case involving “highly emotive” allegations. “The cumulative effect of the evidence will probably inflame or at least distract the jury from the issues at trial,” Burns said. Kaydence was born in September 2014, but had not been seen since 2016.