They revealed a notebook belonging to Holdom, which contained a sordid list of children’s names and ages, separately identified alongside words such as “rape”, “forced” and “consent”. Ms Pearce-Stevenson was murdered on December 15, 2008, when she travelled into the Belanglo State Forest with Holdom, who stepped on her throat and crushed her windpipe, dumping her body in bushland. At the time of her murder he used foreign objects to sexually assault her and took "trophy photographs" of her body, which were later discovered on an SD photo card. In the images on the photo card, police matched the setting to the crime scene where Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s skeleton was found. They also compared a t-shirt depicted in the photos, with that found in the Belanglo State Forest in 2010, displaying the word "Angelic". Daniel Holdom.

Four days later, Holdom suffocated her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce, stuffing the remains of her body in a suitcase that he dumped by the side of a remote highway in South Australia, 1200 kilometres from where her mother was killed and dumped. Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the court two pieces of dishwashing cloths were found inside the toddler’s mouth, while duct tape was wrapped around her head as well as a disposable nappy and towel. Loading A police fact sheet tendered to the court said there was a “sexual motive in the murder” of the toddler and that “the offender was at least attempting to, or planning to, sexually assault [her] at the time of her death.” It said the crown could not forensically prove the extent to which the sexual assault was completed “due to the deteriorated state” of the remains when found.

Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s remains were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest in 2010, but were not linked to those of the toddler until 2015, when the suitcase containing the two-year-old’s remains was discovered. The court heard Holdom and Ms Pearce-Stevenson had been in a short-term relationship in the period leading up to her murder, living together in the ACT. On the day of her murder, both Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s and Holdom’s mobile phones were traced travelling from the ACT to the Belanglo forest. A memorial to Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce Pearce at the roadside, near Wynarka, South Australia, where Khandalyce's body was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty On Friday Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the court Holdom then travelled back to the ACT from the bushland area alone and collected the child, under the ruse he was returning her to her paternal grandmother in South Australia.

Instead he suffocated the toddler, "probably" in a motel room in the NSW town of Narrandera, near Wagga Wagga, using duct tape, dishwashing cloths and a towel from the hotel. "Both murders fall within the worst case and can aptly be described as atrocious, detestable, hateful, gravely reprehensible and extremely wicked," he said. Loading Mr Tedeschi told the court Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s murder was motivated by many factors, including “to gain access to her young daughter Khandalyce, in whom [he] had already expressed a sexual interest”, and financial gain, by gaining accessed to the young mother’s welfare benefits and her financial accounts. Holdom used a mobile phone to create "false indications" to her family that she and Khandalyce were alive, and took advantage of personal papers to steal more than $70,000 from Ms Pearce-Stevenson's accounts, he said.

Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s mother lodged a missing person’s report for the 20-year-old in 2009 but after false contact made by Holdom, “using Karlie's phone” the missing person's report was dropped and she was no longer listed as such. Mr Tedeschi argued that the level of Holdom’s culpability was so extreme that community interest, community protections and deterrence “each should be met with the imposition a of a life sentence”. The prosecution acknowledged evidence that Holdom had suffered serious and ongoing abuse as a child, but argued that it did not discount the seriousness of the crimes. In a victim impact statement read to the court on his behalf by Kellie Lilly (Ms Pearce-Stevenson's aunt), the father and grandfather of the two victims, Bruce Pearce, said the hate he has felt since their murder was "all consuming". Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

"I have never hated anyone the way that I hate you," the statement, directed at Holdom, said. "The thoughts of what the girls went through, the anger I feel turns to physical pain ... it hurts to breathe. I would like to see the death penalty for you, but even that would not be enough." Holdom sat emotionless in the dock with his arms crossed, wearing prison greens and a bandage on his left hand, as the statements were read. A further emotionally charged statement from Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s stepfather Scott Povey was also read to the court on his behalf. Daniel Holdom.

Mr Povey was married to Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s mother Colleen Povey, who died from breast cancer in 2012. In his statement, he told the court of the four last painful years of Mrs Povey’s life, in which she was battling cancer and wondering why her daughter had lost touch. “This was not the Karlie that we knew,” he said. Loading As she neared her last breath in 2012, Mrs Povey uttered six final words:

“Is Karlie and Khandalyce here yet?” They weren’t. And they never would be. By then Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce had been dead for four years. It would be another three years before anyone knew. When she lost her battle with cancer that day, Mrs Povey died never knowing what became of her beloved daughter and granddaughter, or the depraved violence they suffered in their final moments at the hands of one man. Holdom will be sentenced by Justice Hulme on November 9.