WARNING: This story particulars allegations of kid abuse. The Youngsters’s Support Society (CAS) knew Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber had been zip-tying two boys into one-piece pyjamas and their case employee didn’t inform them to cease, in keeping with an electronic mail proven on the couple’s weeks-long homicide trial in Milton, Ont. Holly Simmons, their Halton CAS employee on the time, emailed the 2 potential dad and mom in July 2019 and acknowledged they used zip ties so the boys couldn’t take off their garments, to be able to management “urine” and for “safety.” The employee then suggested Cooney and Hamber to cease utilizing zip ties, however solely on the tents the boys had been sleeping in. “In the unlikely event of a fire, this would prevent the children escaping the tent,” Simmons wrote on July 3, 2019. J.L.’s room in a photograph taken after L.L. died and filed as a court docket exhibit. The boys did not have blankets and J.L. slept in a mesh tent, the homicide trial has been informed. (Ontario Superior Court docket in Milton) The brothers continued to stay with Cooney and Hamber for years, below the supervision of the CAS, till the older boy died, severely malnourished, when he was 12 years outdated in December 2022. The Superior Court docket trial started in mid-September earlier than a choose alone, Justice Clayton Conlan. CBC Hamilton is referring to the boy who died as L.L. and his youthful brother as J.L., who’s now 13 and testified earlier within the proceedings. The Indigenous brothers’ identities are protected below a publication ban. Cooney and Hamber are charged with first-degree homicide of L.L. in addition to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to offer the necessaries of life to J.L. They’ve pleaded not responsible to all charges.
Crown suggests boys had been below ‘torture’
Most of this week, Cooney was below intense cross-examination by assistant Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie. Court docket has heard from Cooney that the boys had been routinely zip-tied into tube-like sleep sacks, wetsuits, onesie pyjamas and hockey helmets. Cooney mentioned the CAS was conscious she and Hamber used zip ties and their employee solely informed them to cease when it got here to confining the boys in tents on their mattress. The boys had been additionally locked of their bedrooms for so long as 18 hours at a time, and the ladies managed when and what the boys ate. “There were a lot of things you did to control, and I’m going to suggest torture the boys,” mentioned MacKenzie on Friday. Cooney disagreed, repeatedly stating the restraints had been to guard the boys from self-harm, resembling whacking their faces on arduous surfaces — though they by no means suffered damaged enamel, black eyes, goose eggs or different accidents from these behaviours.
Cooney, left, with J.L., Hamber and L.L. in a photograph date Oct. 24, 2022. (Ontario Superior Court docket in Milton)
Cooney’s and Hamber’s defence has additionally been that the boys had explosive “tantrums” that precipitated the couple accidents and intensive property injury, and couldn’t be trusted to have “free range” of the home as they’d urinate and defecate “everywhere.”
The Crown challenged the ladies’s claims this week, noting they by no means took pictures or movies of those incidents. MacKenzie mentioned on Friday the boys had accidents as a result of they had been not often set free of their rooms to make use of the washroom.
However Cooney mentioned she and Hamber usually considered it as a foul alternative the boys had been making. In textual content messages exchanged between Hamber and Cooney round midday on December 2021, they talk about how L.L. had urinated in his mattress.
“He thinks if he pees himself he gets breakfast sooner,” Hamber mentioned.
Boys zip-tied in tents after CAS warning, court docket informed
In Hamber’s and Cooney’s care, the boys remained wards of the Ottawa CAS and the method was imagined to be supervised by the Halton CAS. However whether or not the 2 youngsters’s support societies did sufficient to guard the boys from neglect and abuse has been a central query on the trial. The court docket has heard the Halton CAS acquired quite a few studies from academics, a therapist, police and docs who had been involved about how Cooney and Hamber had been treating the boys. However neither CAS company determined to take the boys away, and the Halton CAS by no means visited the house unannounced or interviewed them alone. After Simmons informed Cooney and Hamber they couldn’t zip-tie the boys into tents at night time, they continued, regardless of the actual fact the boys may very well be trapped in an emergency, the Crown has argued, counting on textual content messages despatched by Cooney in 2022.
L.L. in his bed room, carrying a wetsuit, in a photograph dated March 19, 2022. (Ontario Superior Court docket in Milton)
In a single instance, Cooney mentioned to her father, who lived with them, “can you get f–k face from his zipped in tent to go peepee?”
In one other, she informed him, “[L.L.] is in his tent locked in FYI.”
Cooney denied she was speaking about his tent being zip-tied shut, however reasonably, was referring to his wetsuit or locked bed room.
When CAS staff visited the home, they didn’t see the zip-tied tents, the court docket has heard. However the visits had been deliberate forward of time and the employees by no means spoke to the boys with out Hamber or Cooney current.
A toddler safety employee who reviewed the case beforehand testified that the CAS additionally did not report necessary data and missed pink flags earlier than L.L. died.
Simmons was Cooney’s and Hamber’s case employee up till about 2021, when she was promoted to supervisor. After that, their case was overseen by a couple of different staff. The final time the CAS met with the ladies and boys was nearly, in September 2022.
Cooney will proceed testifying on Monday. Hamber is anticipated within the witness field in January.
When you’re affected by this report, you possibly can search for psychological well being assist via assets in your province or territory.
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