An “incredibly underweight” 12-year-old Gold Coast girl with a disability, who allegedly died of malnutrition, was kept home from school for an entire term before her death and would spend hours inside a dark cupboard, a court has heard.<\/p>\n
Details about the lead-up to Tiffani Scholten’s alleged murder were revealed at a bail hearing for her mother in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Last year, Carrissa Kaye Scholten and her partner were arrested and charged over her April 2022 death at their Coomera home, following a protracted homicide investigation.<\/p>\n
The pair are charged with murder on the basis they allegedly had reckless indifference to the girl’s life or that they failed to provide her with the necessities of life.<\/p>\n
Both have not been required to enter any pleas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carrissa Kaye Scholten and her partner have been charged with Tiffani’s murder. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)<\/p>\n
Defence says mother not a flight risk<\/p>\n
On Monday lawyers for Ms Scholten argued her continued detention was not justified, and she should be released on bail.<\/p>\n
Martin Longhurst told the court this was because his client had no criminal history and had proven she was not a risk of flight.<\/p>\n
“When she had no conditions on her and had realistically no impediment of travel or fleeing, she didn’t, she actually participated in the investigation,” he said.<\/p>\n
The court heard there were concerns Ms Scholten would interfere with witnesses, particularly her sister who she intended to live with.<\/p>\n
Mr Longhurst told the court her sister’s statement was not dissimilar to his client’s, and she had “nothing to gain” from interfering with her evidence.<\/p>\n
“It seems to be a balanced version given by the sister,” he said.<\/p>\n
“She subjectively observes a pattern [in Tiffani] of a loss of weight, losing colour and then resuming eating and getting back to a healthy weight.”<\/p>\n
Support for young people and familiesThe Butterfly Foundation<\/a>: National helpline 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673), 8am-midnight (AEST\/AEDT), 7 days a week\u00a0ReachOut Australia<\/a>: Confidential online peer support for young people and online resources for wellbeingHeadspace<\/a>: Centres in each state and territory or check out eheadspace<\/a> for online supportThe Kids Helpline<\/a>: 24-hour support on 1800 55 1800Lifeline<\/a>: 24-hour support for all Australians on 13 11 14Tiffani spent hours in cupboard, court hears<\/p>\n The court heard Tiffani suffered from the genetic neurological disorder, Rett Syndrome, which caused growth issues.<\/p>\n Ms Scholten told police her daughter also suffered seizures, and “goes through stages” where she will not eat or will vomit, but would return to feeding regularly, the court heard.<\/p>\n Mr Longhurst told the court Tiffani had been “incredibly underweight” her entire life, which had been observed by doctors and teachers over the years.<\/p>\n He said at age 10 she weighed 8 kilograms, and in the following years had lost further kilograms.<\/p>\n “From 2019 to 2021 there is a substantial decrease in weight \u2026 and at no stage is any concerns raised then,” he said.<\/p>\n The court heard Tiffani did not attend school in the first week of 2022 due to COVID restrictions, however following this, she did not return at all.<\/p>\n It is alleged no contact was made by Ms Scholten to her daughters’ teachers about why she was absent, the court heard.<\/p>\n The court heard Tiffani never returned to school after COVID and would spend hours in a cupboard. (ABC News: Demi Lynch)<\/p>\n Mr Longhurst told the court it was accepted there were witness accounts that during this time, Tiffani would spend around three hours a day in a room, inside a crib in a cupboard.<\/p>\n “There’s an explanation given that [Tiffani] was more comfortable without too much external light,” he said.<\/p>\n The court heard there was evidence Ms Scholten had not taken her daughter to the doctors since 2019, and she told police this was because Tiffani would become “distressed by needles” and the use of a feeding tube.<\/p>\n Mr Longhurst conceded the crown’s evidence was “strong in many respects”, but he said it was “not necessarily a strong case for murder”.<\/p>\n “There seems to be several witnesses saying up to the date of death, the mother was trying to feed the child,” he said.<\/p>\n “There is an open and obvious alternative to murder on this.”<\/p>\n The prosecution has opposed her bail, and the matter was adjourned for further submissions to be heard next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An “incredibly underweight” 12-year-old Gold Coast girl with a disability, who allegedly died of malnutrition, was kept home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33604,64,63,69523,69524,44,94,701,1049,69525],"class_list":["post-93955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alleged-murder","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bail-application","tag-carrissa-kaye-scholten","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-supreme-court","tag-tiffani-scholten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n