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Convicted Murderer Warren Ross Seeks Sentence Reduction

Ross relentlessly beat his girlfriend's two-year-old daughter and left her for dead.

Warren Ross, who received a maximum jail term of 40 years for the murder of a toddler, is now appealing to reduce his sentence because he fears for his life in jail.

In 2011, he killed two-year-old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves, the daughter of his girlfriend Donna Deaves, by relentlessly beating her, then leaving her in a pram for two days, until she stopped breathing.

Mr Ross tortured the girl for weeks before her death, forcing her to run laps, beating her and whipping her, until the abuse got so horrific that he struck her, banged her head against a glass door, dangled her over the toilet and bashed her head into a cupboard door. She fell unconscious and died two days later in her pram.

He was given a jail term just shy of a life sentence in May 2014 with a non-parole period of 30 years. Donna Deaves was also given a jail sentence of 12 years for manslaughter, for failing to get help for her daughter. She did not call for help until two days after the final terrible incident, when it was too late.

Defence barrister Chris Bruce, SC, argues that Mr Ross should have a reduced sentence due to the ongoing ‘fear of violence and intimidation’ he will continue to experience in jail. The court heard that he has already been assaulted in jail, with someone even having a ‘price on his head’ according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

One of the judges, Justice Clifton Hoeben, said that this was one of the most horrible incidents he’d ever read in his career, and the barrister for the Crown said that the long sentence matched the severity of the crime.

The judges have not yet delivered their decision; it will be given at a later date.

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