AFTER he smothered his two daughters to death Charles Mihayo didn’t waste time confessing to police what he’d done.
“It’s done. I’ve killed them. I’ve killed my kids,” he said to the officers who came to the door on Easter Sunday this year.
At the time he wouldn’t say why or tell them what he’d been going through, but today more details could be revealed at a plea at a Melbourne court.
The hearing will allow Mihayo’s legal team to tell the judge what they want considered when a final sentence is determined and possibly call psychological evidence about the 36-year-old.
The court has heard Mihayo was motivated by revenge against his wife when he decided to kill the girls Savannah, 4, and Indianna, 3— and the final straw may have been finding out she had a new partner.
Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC said Mihayo dressed the girls in ballerina dresses and filmed them dancing to “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen before smothering them with a pillow, bathing and redressing them and then calling police.
He said there was ongoing hostility between Mihayo and his ex-wife regarding access to the children, exacerbated when he found out the girls’ mother had a new partner, and Mihayo killed the girls as revenge.
“It will be submitted by the Crown this is the root cause of the offences,” Mr Silbert told the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Mr Silbert said after the relationship broke down, Mihayo told a co-worker he had been thinking about ways to kill his ex-wife and get away with it but he would make sure his daughters were in a safe place.
Four days before the girls died he Googled “how can I kill my ex-wife”.
The court heard that a month before the killings he wrote a note on his mobile phone: “Do you really believe I would give up my flesh and blood just like that,” the note read. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”
He later told police there was no good reason he acted like he had but it “made sense at the time”.
Despite the threats and Mihayo’s conduct before the murders, defence lawyer Tim Marsh said it was unclear if Mihayo had planned the murders and was genuinely remorseful.
He’d instructed Mr Marsh not to attempt to try and reduce his responsibility for what happened because he didn’t want to “rob them of their justice”.
Despite that he was not prepared to explain his motive.
When he pleaded guilty in September shocking details of Savannah and Indianna’s final moments were described for the first time.
The day before the murders on April 20, Mihayo texted their mother asking to see his daughters “one last time”.
He bought them new dresses and shoes on the day of the murders and then dressed them in “flower girl” dresses and white shoes. He told them to show their mother who was inside the main house.
“Come back inside and we’ll show mum something else in 10 minutes,” Mihayo said.
He then filmed the girls dancing to the song “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen before taking them to a bedroom and smothering them with a pillow.
He phoned police before bathing the dead girls and dressing them again.
When police arrived he yelled “a minute please” while he continued to dress his dead daughters.
He immediately confessed to police and the girls were unable to be revived.
“The accused stated he understood what he did was wrong and he took full responsibility for his actions,” the summary reads.
“The accused would not provide a reason for killing his children.”
Their grief-stricken mother, who was not in court, released a heartbreaking statement after their deaths, saying they will be “forever missed, loved and never forgotten”.
“We are utterly devastated at the loss of Savannah and Indianna,” she said in a brief statement in April.
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