Local News

Man walks free after pleading guilty to toddler’s death

A man walked free from Brisbane’s Supreme Court yesterday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of three-year-old Kyhesha-Lee Joughin.
Kyhesha-Lee Joughin

Christopher Arthur Neville Kent, 47, received a two-year suspended sentence for his involved in the little girl’s death. He had already served 19 months behind bars.

Kent was renting a room in the squalid Petrie apartment where Kyhesha-Lee died on March 30, 2013.

She died after a penetrative bowel injury she had received became infected. She also had bruising on her face, cuts on her ear and a crushed finger.

Crown prosecutor Todd Fuller said her death was completely unnecessary because all her injuries were treatable.

Fuller alleged the girl’s father was the main offender and perpetrator of the abuse, but that Kent had ignored her obvious suffering and refused to help her.

“The defendant failed to assist her in her hour of need,” he said. “It would have been apparent to any caregiver she was seriously unwell. She died a lonely, painful death.”

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