After 35 years Ellen Craig has been sentenced to nine years in prison for the manslaughter of her 2-year-old daughter, Tillie, in 1987.
New Zealand-born Craig, influenced by a cult led by Alexander Wilon, fatally assaulted her daughter with a plastic pipe in a rural Sydney community. Instead of seeking medical help she and other cult members, under Wilon’s direction, disposed of the child’s body by burning it in a barrel.
The cult’s leader avoided trial due to mental unfitness, but Craig, who fled to New Zealand after the incident, was arrested in 2021 and extradited to Australia in 2022.
Tillie’s father, Gerard Stanhope, who spent decades searching for his daughter, only learned of her death in 2020.
In court, he described the anguish of not knowing his daughter was dead for over 30 years, while Craig expressed remorse for her actions and the deception that followed.
Craig will be eligible for parole in 2027.
