A Melbourne man who stomped a two-year-old girl to death – 11 years ago – after she accidentally wet herself on his lounge has been cleared of murder but guilty of manslaughter in a Victorian court.
Mussie Debresay, 37, was dating the girl’s mother when the family stayed at his home on May 13, 2005. A day later the toddler presented at hospital with blunt force trauma to her abdomen and was dead within hours, reports the ABC.
The girl’s little brother, who was four at the time, told police 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.
Debresay always claimed that the girl had fallen off the couch but prosecutors dismissed this after the toddler’s body showed numerous other injuries to her head, neck, arms, legs and vagina, and police found the girl’s blood in the man’s home, as well as a soiled couch cushion.
Debresay – who was out on bail – has been taken into custody and is facing a pre-sentencing hearing in November.
