Overview
- Carrissa Kaye Scholten applied for bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court, with Justice Elizabeth Wilson adjourning the matter and prosecutors opposing her release.
- Scholten and former partner Aaron Paul Richardson were charged in 2024 over the 12-year-old’s April 2022 death, after police reported finding the child extremely emaciated and concluded inadequate care was directly related to her death.
- Prosecutors say the murder case is based on failing to provide the necessaries of life or acting with reckless indifference, citing Tiffani’s absence from Southport Special School for all of term one in 2022 and unsuccessful efforts by staff to reach her mother.
- The hearing was told witnesses described Tiffani spending hours daily inside a crib in a cupboard and not seeing a doctor since 2019, while the defence said the dark space kept light low for her comfort and medical procedures caused distress.
- Defence counsel argued Tiffani had Rett syndrome, lifelong very low weight and feeding difficulties, said the mother continued trying to feed her, highlighted Scholten’s lack of criminal history and cooperation, and contended there is an obvious alternative to a murder case.