Tuesday 24 May 2022 07:01 AM Dante Arthurs to stay in jail for rape and murder of Perth girl Sofia ... trends now
A sadistic monster who raped an eight-year-old girl before strangling her in a shopping centre toilet will stay behind bars after the parole board refused for a second time to release him.
Dante Wyndham Arthurs jailed for life for murdering Perth schoolgirl Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia Shu, a heinous crime that shocked Australia at the time.
Next month will be 16 years since Arthurs, then 21, followed the little girl into a toilet at Livingston Marketplace where he raped, beat and suffocated Sofia before fleeing.
Sofia's teenage brother went to find out why she was taking so long and found her naked body lying motionless on the bathroom floor.
The State's Prisoners Review Board decided to keep Arthurs behind bars for at least another three years when his non-parole period of 13 years expired in 2019.
The murder of Perth schoolgirl Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia Shu in 2006 shocked the nation
The board decided last week Arthurs should remain locked up and won't review his parole again until 2025, The West Australian reported.
The reasons for the ruling are confidential.
Attorney-General John Quigley hasn't commented on the latest decision but described Arthurs' crime in 2019 as 'one of the most shocking and brutal crimes in recent times'.
Sofia went to the toilet at Livingston Marketplace in the southern suburb of Canning Vale as her uncle and siblings waited nearby.
As she left the female toilets, she was grabbed from behind by Arthurs and dragged into a cubicle where she was raped, beaten, suffocated, and left to die.
Sofia's brother, then 14, found her body when he went to look for her and why she was taking so long.
Many police officers and lawyers who worked on the investigation still regard the case as one of the most harrowing of their careers.
Child killer Dante Wyndham Arthurs will remain behind bars until at least June 2025
Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu (pictured) was grabbed from behind and dragged into a cubicle where she was sexually assaulted, beaten, and suffocated
The heinous crime sparked outrage and resulted in homicide laws introduced in 2008 in Western Australia that give judges the power to send child killers to jail for the rest of their lives.
It was later
