A Melbourne man who was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for killing his partner’s toddler has spectacularly had his sentence overturned.
Mussie Debresay was originally convicted of manslaughter for stomping on the little girl’s abdomen after she wet herself on his couch in 2005. She died of internal injuries.
Mr Debresay was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
But three Court of Appeal judges have now overturned this decision, saying Mr Debresay couldn’t be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
The main witness in the case was the brother of the little girl – who cannot be named for legal reasons – and he was only four years old when his sister died.
Court of Appeal justices, Phillip Priest, David Beach and Stephen Kaye, AM, said the brother’s evidence was unreliable.
He told police at the time that his sister did a “wee wee” on the couch cushion and “MJ”, as he called Debresay, hit her and he could remember his sister screaming out in pain.
The boy, now 15, testified at Mr Debresay’s manslaughter trial last year but the judges found his evidence was “riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions, and assertions that objectively could not be true”.
Source: 7 News
Source: 7 News
“He said that from where he was on the couch he could not actually see [his sister] at the time when he said she was assaulted,” the judges said.
“[He] further agreed that he had not actually seen the applicant step on [his sister’s] back.
They also concluded the little girl’s fatal injuries could just have easily been caused by her mother.
“We think it impossible to exclude beyond reasonable doubt the reasonable hypothesis that [the girl’s mother] caused the injuries,” the judges said.
Mr Debresay was then told he would walk free.
