Robert Smith stood by and did nothing as Kiesha was killed, before he burnt her body.
Kiesha Weippeart's step-father Robert Smith has been sentenced over her death. Source: The Daily Telegraph
THE man who left Kiesha Weippeart to die then hid her body in a shallow grave will spend at least 12 years behind bars.
Kiesha's step-father Robert Smith was this afternoon sentenced in the Supreme Court over the six-year-old's 2010 death.
The young girl was reported missing from her family's Mt Druitt home in August, but her remains were not found until April the following year.
In a secretly-recorded conversation with undercover police, Smith said he heard a "loud bang" from the girl's bedroom more than two weeks before she was reported as having disappeared.
He found Kiesha lying on the floor unconscious and tried to wake her, but instead of calling an ambulance he went to bed then to work the following day.
When Smith returned home he found the girl dead.
Kiesha's body was hidden in a suitcase for several days before he took it in a taxi to nearby Shalvey, where it was doused in petrol and set alight before the remains were buried.
About two weeks later, emergency services received a triple-0 call reporting the girl missing from her bedroom after the from door of the unit was left open.
For the next eight months Smith maintained the young girl has disappeared, with the 33-year-old even telling police he had been like a father to Kiesha.
"She's not my daughter, you know, but I treat her like she was," he said.
In April 2011, Smith finally admitted to undercover officers that Kiesha was dead and he had hidden her body.
"She wasn't waking up or nothing. I was like 'how can this shit happen to me?'," he said.
Smith was eventually charged with the girl's murder, but he later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of "gross criminal negligence".
He also admitted to being an accessory to her murder.
Justice Megan Latham today sentenced Smith to a maximum 16 years in jail with a 12-year, non-parole period.
She said his crimes were among the most serious imaginable of their type, with his decision to burn the young girl's body a "particularly heinous act".
Justice Latham said Smith made a "simple and cowardly choice" to protect his own interests – rather than those of a vulnerable and "gravely injured" child.
"These were not spontaneous, ill-conceived acts carried out in panic, such as are usually encountered by the courts when dealing with this offence," she said.
Justice Latham said finding an unconscious six-year-old would move anyone except the most "callous and unfeeling of adults" to seek medical help.
With time already served, Smith will be eligible for release in 2023.
A woman, who can't be identified for legal reasons, is expected to face trial for Kiesha's murder later this year.
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