Tillie Craig died after receiving a series of blows with a plastic pipe Ellen was sentenced to death for not sweeping properly, a common punishment in the sect. The woman concealed the crime for more than three decades until a former member of the group reported it to the police.
A court in New South Wales, in southern Australia, sentenced Craig, 62, to maximum penalty for homicideincluding six years during which she will not be eligible for parole, after the defendant pleaded guilty in June and expressed remorse, the outlet reported. ABC.
Judge Natalie Adams said she believes Craig can be rehabilitated, but regretted that his expression of remorse had come so late.
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Gerard Stanhope, the victim’s father, gained custody of the girl after her disappearance and searched for her for decades. Stanhope in a written submission to the court stated that the loss of her daughter is “a wound that never heals.”
The inquest heard that Craig berated and beat her daughter in July 1987 and, alarmed to discover she was dead, placed the body in a bathtub and waited for the cult leader, Alexander Wilon, to arrive.
Several members of the sect collaborated to incinerate the minor’s body on the sect’s farm located near Oberon, New South Wales, after which everyone was forced to keep quiet and the mother revealed that she had given her up for adoption to a South African couple.
Craig was later expelled from the sect and returned to New Zealand, where he changed his name.
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However, a former member of the group revealed the crime to the Australian police, who reopened the case in 2019 and obtained the extradition of the mother, who ended up confessing to the crime.
“I will never forgive myself for what I have done. All I can do is try to live with it and atone for whatever guilt I may have.“the convicted woman said in a written statement, explaining that during her years in the sect she felt detached from her daughter and that she wants to serve her sentence so that justice can be done.
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