CONTENT WARNING
Never-before-seen photos of murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten show the happy nine-year-old celebrating her last Christmas.
Murder trial exhibits released by the NSW Supreme Court also include images taken the day before she was shot dead by the evil monster she called ‘daddy’.
Further images were released of the brown plastic barrel in which Charlise’s body was found upside down in the foetal position, bound with tape and weighted down with sand on the banks of the Colo River.
Daily Mail Australia previously reported the scene where Charlise’s remains were discovered was so horrific that police were traumatised and needed time off work.
‘There will be people that won’t be coming back to work for a while,’ a source said.
The photos, along with police interviews with Charlise’s murderer, Justin Stein, and a recording of the Triple-0 call by Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, reporting her missing, were released at the end of Stein’s trial.
Stein, 34, a drug abuser from a wealthy family, was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering Charlise between January 11 and 12, 2022.
A jury pronounced him guilty after a month-long trial and then eight days of deliberation before Justice Helen Wilson.
The convicted killer, who shot Charlise in the face while she was on holiday with him and her mother, Stein’s then fiancée, could face life behind bars.
Charlise Mutten is pictured on Christmas Day 2021 just a few weeks before she was murdered in new photos released by the NSW Supreme Court
Charlise is seen with her mother Kallista Mutten on Christmas Day 2021, when the nine-year-old was on holiday in Sydney with Kallista’s fiancé Justin Stein, who has now been convicted of her murder
Justin Stein (above) was Kallista Mutten’s fiancé from a wealthy family, but in reality the former couple were drug offenders and had met while serving prison sentences
Murder trial exhibits released by the NSW Supreme Court include images of the brown plastic barrel in which Charlise’s body was found upside down, bound with tape and weighted down with sand on the banks of the Colo River
Stein had pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder, and lied that it was instead Ms Mutten, 40, who had shot her daughter in the NSW Blue Mountains.
Stein had claimed that after Ms Mutten shot her daughter, she secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and secured it on the back of his ute without his knowledge.
But the jury did not believe him.
Ms Mutten denied having any involvement in her daughter’s death and broke down in tears when she faced the accusation in court.
Many of the facts of the case were not in dispute, including that Charlise died from gunshot wounds she sustained at or near a Mount Wilson estate owned by Stein’s mother, the jury heard.
At Stein’s trial, the court heard about the ‘unconditional love’ between Charlise and Kallista, and of the child’s growing affection for Stein via FaceTime calls.
‘She said she really liked Justin and she asked me if he would be a good dad,’ her grandfather Clinton Mutten said.
The last-ever photos of Charlise Mutten (left) in a swimming pool three days before her murder, and (right) laughing on the night of January 10, 2022. A day later she would be dead
The .22 BSAQ rifle with scope that Justin Stein used to shoot Charlise in the face
The barrel containing Charlise’s body was dumped in the bush by the Colo River, 60km from where the young girl was shot dead at the Stein property, ‘Wildenstein’. Daily Mail Australia previously reported the scene was so horrific that police were traumatised and needed time off work
When Charlise did eventually come down to NSW for the holiday, she had finished a successful school year in which she had won a literacy prize.
Clinton Mutten also told the court the young girl loved animals and had dreams of becoming a veterinarian surgeon.
By the last week of Charlise’s life, the court heard, the romance between Stein and Kallista was all but over.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said Stein was the last person to see Charlise and had the opportunity to kill her between 7.16pm on Tuesday, January 11, and 10.06am on Wednesday, January 12.
Stein will be sentenced in August for Charlise’s murder.