Rick Cataldo Car Accident – A FATHER who fatally battered his young daughter might be out from prison in fewer than four years. On Monday, Rick Cataldo, also of Brisbane, was given an eight-year prison term for the manslaughter of Lily Rain Cataldo in April 2012. After over three years and ten months in prison, however, Justice Debra Mullins ruled that he would be eligible to apply for parole immediately.
The court heard that seven to ten days before Lily’s death, she sustained several fractures to her head, four fractures to her ribs, and a spiral fracture to her right arm. Michelle Catherine Leask, Cataldo’s girlfriend, told police that on April 29, she heard her daughter screaming and found Cataldo “whacking” the child over and again on the back. Cataldo said Lily was having difficulty breathing, but he insisted Leask not take her to the hospital since doing so would be “selfish” on another family member’s birthday.
According to Justice Mullins, Cataldo’s kid began sleeping more and more, cried whenever she was touched, and developed a rattle in her chest over the course of the next few days. After seven to ten days, Leask discovered Lily motionless on the bed where she shared with her father. She was rushed to the emergency room, but doctors were unable to save her. Cataldo denied his daughter “of the chance to live a happy and long life,” as stated by Justice Mullins. To paraphrase Justice Mullins, “your actions who took away his sister” will be known by his older son, who was born before Lily.
