Kambalda rapist father jailed as 25-year mystery finally comes to an end

She stuffed toilet paper into the newborn’s mouth to stop it from crying, suffocating him, and then hid his lifeless body in a toilet bowl before leaving.

The grim discovery of the body the following day sparked a mystery lasting more than two decades, with the child’s mother never able to be identified despite numerous police pleas through the media.

A breakthrough in the case came in 2019, when the child’s mother had her fingerprints taken by police for an unrelated matter in Victoria and they matched those found at the toilet block.

DNA tests confirmed she was the baby’s mother, and a subsequent DNA test taken from her rapist revealed he was the father.

The mother, now 39, was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of infanticide and was sentenced to 16 months jail, suspended for 12 months, in July.

During her sentencing in the Perth Children’s Court, she was described as a vulnerable victim who regretted her actions and as a result had inflicted great punishment on herself in the years since, turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma.

The details of the ongoing abuse she suffered at the hands of the man she considered her step-father were laid bare during his sentencing in the Perth District Court on Thursday.

The court was told the man would regularly abuse the girl after school in his workshop and in their home between 1992 and 1997.

He also raped her during a family holiday to Bail when she was 12.

He was the only person the girl told about the baby’s death, with both keeping the secret for decades.

He continued to abuse her after she gave birth.

The man was living in Queensland with a wife and three children when he was arrested and extradited to WA in September, 2019.

The prosecution said he had “sacrificed his victim’s innocence for his own perverted sexual needs”, however his lawyer claimed the man was raised in a “sheltered and strict” religious community, and was “sexually naive”.

Judge David Maclean, in sentencing the man to 8½ years jail, found he had “used [the girl] as a person to have sex with on many occasions as you saw fit” and had showed a “wilful blindness” to the tragic consequences.

He will be eligible for parole in 2027.