TWO Australian lesbians who kissed over the body of an English-born girl they killed to prove their love, smiled yesterday as a Perth court heard it took the victim half an hour to die.
The pair bludgeoned 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell with a concrete block, strangled her with a dog chain and then videoed her blood-splattered bedroom and semi-naked body while they mocked her English accent, a court in Perth, Western Australia heard.
One of the then teenagers was a member of a vampire sub- culture interested in violence and drinking blood.
Jessica Ellen Stasinowsky, 20, and Valerie Paige Parashumti, 19, had pled guilty and were appearing at a sentencing hearing.
The court heard the senseless murder stemmed from their obsessive need to prove their commitment to each other.
Prosecutor David Dempster told the West Australian supreme court that the pair had killed Stacey, whom they had known for three days, because she had been "so f*****g annoying" after moving in with them in late December 2006.
Mr Dempster said they gave Stacey alcohol containing a sleeping pill and Parashumti repeatedly hit her head with a concrete block as she tried to flee.
Because Stacey was taking a long time to die, Stasinowsky then wrapped a chain around her neck while Parashumti continued to beat her with the block, the court heard.
They monitored her pulse after she fell unconscious and kissed each other over the body after she died, he said.
The two women, facing a mandatory minimum 15 years behind bars, grinned and giggled at each other in court as Mr Dempster said it took their victim more than half an hour to die. Their behaviour earned several warnings from Justice Peter Blaxell, who can pass longer sentences on them.
Footage from a mobile phone showed the lovers mopping blood and pulling a blanket off Stacey's semi-naked body. "She is then abused by both offenders and they both mock her English accent," Mr Dempster said.
They later forced a 15-year-old boy to watch the film and made him help clear up the blood.
The pair dumped Stacey's body head first in a wheelie-bin behind the house and were still discussing ways of disposing of her body several days later when police arrived looking for the teenager, who had been reported missing by her parents.
Parashumti's lawyer, David Edwardson, QC, said:
"Both women appeared to be obsessed with proving their commitment to each other."
Parashumti had a violent upbringing. She had no remorse about killing Stacey but asked her lawyer to apologise for the distress caused to the girl's family.
The prosecution called for strict security life imprisonment. But the women's lawyers asked for their youth and guilty pleas to be considered.
They will be sentenced on 7 March.
The full article contains 478 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
