hampered by the sedation caused by the quetiapine, she was shot from behind before she could escape. The force of the impact and the severe damage done to her pelvis must have brought her to the ground. The second shot was directed into her face at close range, at a time when the injury already inflicted to her pelvis would have made escape impossible. The offender approached Charlise and discharged the second shot from close range. At least the second shot was intended and carried out with full deliberation. It was not survivable and was not intended to be. Charlise must have been very frightened, despite the sedation.
85 There is no evidence of planning or premeditation, but neither is there evidence to establish on balance that the crime was spontaneously committed.
86 There is no evidence capable of establishing the offender's motivation in killing Charlise. The offender submitted through senior counsel that something must have occurred to make him lose control, but it is impossible to conclude that anything that a young child might do could be such as to prompt her adult carer to reach for a gun and use it against a 9-year-old girl. The absence of evidence of motive does not diminish the gravity of the crime.
87 After shooting Charlise, the offender treated her broken body with an inhumanity and a casual disregard that is shocking. She was wrapped up in a garbage bag, tarpaulins, and other plastic cloth, and hidden away until such time as the offender could take steps to dispose of her body. Probably soon after the shooting, but at some time before he left Mount Wilson with the orange barrel on the back of his utility, the offender dumped Charlise into the 220 litre barrel with the soil onto which she had shed her blood, later covering her with sand, at least some of which was purchased as children's play sand, the use of the play sand being a stunning act of grotesque cynicism, even accepting that the offender did not deliberately purchase sand of that description. Charlise was thereafter dumped in a place the offender hoped no one would ever find her.
88 This example of the crime of murder is as grave as it is possible for an offence encompassed by's 18(1)(a) of the Crimes Act to be. That it is possible to find other instances of murder that may be attended by more shocking or worse
