Justin Stein sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of nine-year-old schoolgirl Charlise Mutten

Justin Laurens Stein was sentenced to life imprisonment for the execution-murder of nine-year-old schoolgirl Charlise Mutten in the Blue Mountains.

Stein was today sentenced to the maximum penalty of life imprisonment after being found guilty of shooting the schoolgirl's body and dumping it in a barrel near the Colo River, southwest of Sydney, in January 2022.

During the trial, Stein accused Charlise's mother, Kallista Mutten, his then-fiancée, of murdering her own daughter.

Justice Helen Wilson told the New South Wales Supreme Court today that Stein had shown “not the slightest hint of remorse” for such a “shockingly callous crime”.

“After murdering a nine-year-old girl, the perpetrator devoted all his energy to covering his tracks and shifting the blame onto others,” said Judge Wilson.

“Some murder cases are so serious that the maximum penalty is the only appropriate punishment.”

In sentencing on Friday, Judge Wilson said the sequence of shots in Charlise's murder was “almost like an execution.”

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