The family of a two-year-old girl and her 20-year-old mother — whose bodies were found dumped in different parts of rural Australia after being murdered — has welcomed a decision not to reduce their killer’s sentence.
Readers are advised this article contains graphic details that may be distressing.
Daniel Holdom, now in his 50s, was handed two life sentences in November 2018 after pleading guilty to the murders of Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson, 20, and her daughter Khandalyce Kiara Pearce in December 2008.
The New South Wales’s Court of Criminal Appeal handed down a judgement on Friday which dismissed an application brought by Holdom to reduce his sentences.
Relatives of Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce released a statement following the judgement in which they welcomed the decision.
“Our family wants to thank the DPP, the multiple police departments and everyone who has supported us through this,” the statement read.
“Your dedication has brought justice. Your kindness has carried us.
“Karlie and Khandalyce — we love you forever.”
Holdom murdered Ms Pearce-Stevenson and dumped her body in the Belanglo State Forest, in the NSW Southern Highlands, on 15 December 2008.
The Court of Criminal Appeal judgement stated that after killing the 20-year-old mother, Holdom took “degrading and sexualised photographs of her in the forest and kept these for many years”.
Daniel Holdom dumped the bodies of the mother and daughter 1,200 kilometres apart. (Supplied)
Four days later, Holdom also murdered two-and-a-half-year-old Khandalyce at Narrandera, in south-western New South Wales.
“The circumstances of each murder were horrific and there were sexual overtones to each,” the judgement read.
“For some years afterwards, the applicant took steps to make it appear that the victims were still alive.
“These steps included using Karlie’s mobile telephone to contact her family and fraudulently using her bank account.”
In 2010, Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s remains were found but weren’t identified as hers until 2015.
In July 2015, Khandalyce’s remains were also found, inside a suitcase on the side of a remote highway near Wynarka, in rural South Australia.
Holdom was arrested in the NSW Hunter Valley in October 2015.
The application, lodged by Holdom in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, stated that the sentence imposed was “manifestly excessive” and that the sentencing judge “failed to give proper consideration” to his guilty pleas.
The application also claimed the judge hadn’t given “proper consideration” to Holdom’s background and shouldn’t have rejected the professional opinions of a psychiatrist who assessed him.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal handed down the judgement on Friday. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)
In sentencing Holdom in 2018, Justice Robert Hulme referred to the murders as being of “extreme gravity and appalling depravity”.
“They are crimes that meet the description of being of very great heinousness,” he said.
“I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that offender’s culpability is so extreme, and that his crimes are of a level of heinousness.”
The Court of Criminal Appeal judgement dismissed Holdom’s application on the basis that, although “stern”, it was “open” to Justice Hulme to impost those sentences.
“His Honour was nevertheless satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the applicant’s culpability was ‘extreme’ and that the murders he committed were at the top range of objective seriousness; they were aptly described by his Honour as falling within the ‘worst case’ and ‘of very great heinousness’,” the judgement said.
“In these circumstances, it was open to the sentencing Judge to impose a life sentence.”
Holdom will remain behind bars indefinitely.
