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The boy who escaped the horrors of his Kanata basement in February 2013 says he’s doing much better these days and though he tries to forget his gruelling ordeal, his scars are a daily reminder.
“I wish they weren’t there,” the boy, now 14, said in a videotaped victim-impact statement shown at his stepmother’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.
When kids at school ask about his scars, he tries to change the subject or simply says it’s a long story, court heard.
He said it’s hard to escape the painful memories of torture and starvation at the hands of his father, an ex-RCMP officer.
Sometimes he’s happy, and sometimes he cries randomly.
“It really depends on the day,” he said.
His father, a former counter-terrorism officer, was convicted last month of assault, sexual assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessities of life. His stepmother, 38, was convicted in a lesser role on charges of assault with a weapon (a wooden spoon) and failing to provide the necessities of life.
The boy was shackled, starved and burned in the basement while the rest of his family — including two younger brothers — went about their daily routine upstairs.
In a moving victim-impact statement that silenced the court, the boy’s aunt said the case has left her family stunned and devastated.
She told court the stepmother betrayed the boy by not protecting him, or, at the very least, calling someone who could.
The aunt then addressed the stepmother directly, saying one day the boy will realize that “your silence will be the final, ear-piercing screech of a mother abandoning her son.”
“You were the only other adult in his hell,” she told a hushed courtroom.
The stepmother kept her head down in the prisoner’s box as the aunt continued, saying it was beyond her comprehension how the woman ignored the boy’s pleas for help down in the basement.
The boy was also videotaped by his father as the ex-Mountie inflicted disturbing, religious-themed interrogations in the couple’s Kanata home, demanding that the shackled and emaciated boy repent, and screaming that he would “weep blood” for his so-called sins. At one point, the father enlisted a priest to perform an exorcism.
Prosecutor Marie Dufort told court the stepmother failed her son.
“He was dying. She knew that and she withheld food. There was no prey that could’ve been more easy than (this boy),” the prosecutor said.
“Her moral culpability is at its highest because she could have reached out but she didn’t,” Dufort told court.
In one of the horrifying videos that reduced defence lawyers and police to tears at trial, the tiny, frightened and starving boy begged: “I want my family back.”
The boy’s stepmother did not testify at trial but court heard she told police she was guilty of not protecting the boy and expressed remorse early on. Prosecutors firmly established that she knew the boy was being confined and assaulted in the basement, the judge ruled. In fact, court heard that the stepmother — a senior bureaucrat — was at home on maternity leave while the child-torture unfolded downstairs.
She also told police early on that she knew the boy was being confined and tortured at the hands of her husband.
The father took the stand in his own defence at trial, and portrayed himself as the victim and tried to explain that he thought his boy was possessed. At his wit’s end, he said he started confining his son and rationing his meals.
The young boy spent the last month of his captivity trying to escape the horrors of the basement, where he was chained to a post as he slept and forced to use a slop bucket for a toilet.
That he managed to loosen his chains and escape on Feb. 12, 2013, is what led to the child-abuse convictions against his father and stepmother.
The afternoon the boy escaped, his neighbours saw him wandering in the snow in search of water. One neighbour, who likened the boy to a ghost, gave him water after he spotted the boy trying to drink from the garden tap in the backyard. The boy went to another neighbour and asked for water and offered pocket change if he could stay the night. The boy was sent back home but, along the way, he collapsed in a snowbank. The neighbour called 911.
When the police came, the boy came close to being returned to his Mountie father, who spun a tale of a wild, out-of-control son. The story prompted a responding officer to put her hand on the father’s shoulder as a form of comfort. But soon after, when looking at the boy under the bright lights in the back of an ambulance, it was clear the child had been subjected to severe abuse. The Ottawa police officer said it was as if she was looking at someone who had survived a concentration camp.
Related
In his police interview back in 2013, the father admitted to the crimes against the child but tried to justify it as discipline.
Since it was never in question that the boy had been abused, the father mounted a post-traumatic stress disorder defence during the trial.
The boy weighed only 50 pounds when he escaped and emergency-room doctors said he had almost starved to death.
The sentencing hearing continues.
gdimmock@postmedia.com
www.twitter.com/crimegarden
查看原文...
“I wish they weren’t there,” the boy, now 14, said in a videotaped victim-impact statement shown at his stepmother’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.
When kids at school ask about his scars, he tries to change the subject or simply says it’s a long story, court heard.
He said it’s hard to escape the painful memories of torture and starvation at the hands of his father, an ex-RCMP officer.
Sometimes he’s happy, and sometimes he cries randomly.
“It really depends on the day,” he said.
His father, a former counter-terrorism officer, was convicted last month of assault, sexual assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessities of life. His stepmother, 38, was convicted in a lesser role on charges of assault with a weapon (a wooden spoon) and failing to provide the necessities of life.
The boy was shackled, starved and burned in the basement while the rest of his family — including two younger brothers — went about their daily routine upstairs.
In a moving victim-impact statement that silenced the court, the boy’s aunt said the case has left her family stunned and devastated.
She told court the stepmother betrayed the boy by not protecting him, or, at the very least, calling someone who could.
The aunt then addressed the stepmother directly, saying one day the boy will realize that “your silence will be the final, ear-piercing screech of a mother abandoning her son.”
“You were the only other adult in his hell,” she told a hushed courtroom.
The stepmother kept her head down in the prisoner’s box as the aunt continued, saying it was beyond her comprehension how the woman ignored the boy’s pleas for help down in the basement.
The boy was also videotaped by his father as the ex-Mountie inflicted disturbing, religious-themed interrogations in the couple’s Kanata home, demanding that the shackled and emaciated boy repent, and screaming that he would “weep blood” for his so-called sins. At one point, the father enlisted a priest to perform an exorcism.
Prosecutor Marie Dufort told court the stepmother failed her son.
“He was dying. She knew that and she withheld food. There was no prey that could’ve been more easy than (this boy),” the prosecutor said.
“Her moral culpability is at its highest because she could have reached out but she didn’t,” Dufort told court.
In one of the horrifying videos that reduced defence lawyers and police to tears at trial, the tiny, frightened and starving boy begged: “I want my family back.”
The boy’s stepmother did not testify at trial but court heard she told police she was guilty of not protecting the boy and expressed remorse early on. Prosecutors firmly established that she knew the boy was being confined and assaulted in the basement, the judge ruled. In fact, court heard that the stepmother — a senior bureaucrat — was at home on maternity leave while the child-torture unfolded downstairs.
She also told police early on that she knew the boy was being confined and tortured at the hands of her husband.
The father took the stand in his own defence at trial, and portrayed himself as the victim and tried to explain that he thought his boy was possessed. At his wit’s end, he said he started confining his son and rationing his meals.
The young boy spent the last month of his captivity trying to escape the horrors of the basement, where he was chained to a post as he slept and forced to use a slop bucket for a toilet.
That he managed to loosen his chains and escape on Feb. 12, 2013, is what led to the child-abuse convictions against his father and stepmother.
The afternoon the boy escaped, his neighbours saw him wandering in the snow in search of water. One neighbour, who likened the boy to a ghost, gave him water after he spotted the boy trying to drink from the garden tap in the backyard. The boy went to another neighbour and asked for water and offered pocket change if he could stay the night. The boy was sent back home but, along the way, he collapsed in a snowbank. The neighbour called 911.
When the police came, the boy came close to being returned to his Mountie father, who spun a tale of a wild, out-of-control son. The story prompted a responding officer to put her hand on the father’s shoulder as a form of comfort. But soon after, when looking at the boy under the bright lights in the back of an ambulance, it was clear the child had been subjected to severe abuse. The Ottawa police officer said it was as if she was looking at someone who had survived a concentration camp.
Related
In his police interview back in 2013, the father admitted to the crimes against the child but tried to justify it as discipline.
Since it was never in question that the boy had been abused, the father mounted a post-traumatic stress disorder defence during the trial.
The boy weighed only 50 pounds when he escaped and emergency-room doctors said he had almost starved to death.
The sentencing hearing continues.
gdimmock@postmedia.com
www.twitter.com/crimegarden
查看原文...
