Daughter labels Terrence Bice 'a monster' over 2005 attack on toddler Teagen Ferguson that caused her death in 2020

The daughter of a convicted killer has confronted her father in the WA Supreme Court, calling him "a monster" for causing catastrophic injuries to her sister – his daughter – that led to her death 15 years later.

Teagen Ferguson was just shy of her third birthday in 2005 when her father, Terrence Bice, 41, violently threw her to the ground when she would not stop crying.

She suffered a traumatic brain injury and was left permanently physically and intellectually disabled, needing around-the-clock care, as well hundreds of trips to hospital and multiple surgeries, until her death in June 2020, when she was 18.

By that time she had spent five years in palliative care and was in excruciating pain.

Her sister Courtney, who was then four years old, witnessed the 2005 assault and today sat face to face with her father as she read her victim impact statement to the court at his sentencing hearing.

She said she was still hurting, angry and confused about what her father had done, saying he "was the one man" she and her family were "meant to look up to" and be "loved and protected" by.

From that day, Bice "was a monster".

"He took every hope of a life from us," she said.

"My beautiful sister is gone because of what he's done. She lost her life because of his actions and it wasn't, it's not fair."

Courtney, who is now 23, also paid tribute to her mother Kristy, who listened to proceedings via an audio link, saying she had shown "dedication and strength" in looking after her and Teagen for so long.

Bice has pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing Teagen.

It will be the second time he will be sentenced over his actions. In 2005 he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Teagen and served three years of a five-year prison term.

The court was told he was charged a second time, in November 2021, because the medical evidence showed that Teagen's death was "causally linked" to the injuries she suffered 15 years earlier.

Bice was originally charged with murder and due to stand trial in July this year, but prosecutors accepted his guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

He has been in custody since his arrest when he was charged, and his lawyers urged Justice Anthony Derrick to take into account the time he has already served on remand, as well as the three years he spent in jail for the grievous bodily harm offence.

Justice Derrick will sentence Bice later this week .

He highlighted that the sentence he imposes on Bice will be for the offence of manslaughter and he has "to ensure that double punishment does not take place".

Select "Western Australia Top Stories" from either the ABC News homepage or the settings menu in the app.

Here's some of the latest local reads from WA 📰