The Kiwi mother of a 12-year-old girl, murdered by an Australian man while in his foster care, says she thought the decision to give her daughter up was the "safer option" as she dealt with her own domestic violence situation.
Cindy Palmer told 60 Minutes that when she put then seven-year-old daughter Tiahleigh Palmer into the Australian foster system she was looking for help to escape a "very severe domestic violence situation".
"I realised that one day I was just going to die and they were just going to be left there by themselves," Ms Palmer revealed last night.
"I still firmly believe the day I went to the department looking for help I made the right decision.
"It's not what I wanted and it wasn't the decision any of us wanted but at the end of the day it was, I thought, the safer option."
Foster dad Rick Thorburn was sentenced last Friday to at least 20 years in prison for the murder of foster daughter Tiahleigh.
Thorburn pleaded guilty on Friday to killing the 12-year-old and dumping her body in a Gold Coast river in 2015, after learning his son Trent had been having sex with Tiahleigh and may have got her pregnant.
Thorburn wiped away tears as he replied "guilty" to charges of murder, interfering with the 12-year-old's corpse, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Thorburn had concocted a web of lies to cover up his heinous crime, and those of his wife and two sons who have already been jailed for their complicity.
Thorburn, fearing his son could be charged, told his family he was going to take care of things, the Brisbane Supreme Court was told.
Six days after Thorburn said he dropped Tiahleigh safely at school on October 30, 2015, fishermen found a girl's badly decomposed body on the banks of the Pimpama River. It was later confirmed to be Tiahleigh.
Sometime between 8pm and 10pm on October 29, Thorburn murdered the 12-year-old, the court was told.
He then went on a mission to dispose of her body and was covered in dirt when he returned and told his family: "It's done."
The court heard they maintained a lie about Tiahleigh running away before her body, unclothed but for her underpants, was found in the river.
An autopsy was conducted but due to the state of her body a cause of death was never determined, the court heard. The only noticeable injury was a bruise on her skull.
During the police investigation, all family members gave the same false version of events but detectives were suspicious and bugged the family's home, listening to their conversation for about a month.
The discussions, combined with the motive of keeping Tiahleigh quiet about Trent having sex with her - led to the family's arrest.
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