- OSHAWA, Ontario -- A nine-month
prison sentence for an Ontario couple who frequently locked their two adopted
sons in cages is not enough, according to the boys, their relatives and
the children's aid society that handled the case.
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- "I don't feel justice has been served," said
the younger son, now 17. "I feel they should get more time."
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- Wanda Secord, director of services with the Durham Children's
Aid Society, echoed his sentiment. "We are disappointed. We had hoped
for a stronger sentence," she said outside the courthouse in Oshawa,
Ont., after the two were handcuffed and led away to begin serving their
sentences.
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- The jail time does send a message to abusive parents
that "child abuse is not acceptable ever," and the courts "need
to be continuously giving that message," she added.
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- Assistant Crown attorney Soula Olver was also clearly
displeased that Judge Donald Halikowski of the Ontario Court of Justice
rejected her plea on sentencing. She had asked for as long as eight years
for the mother and up to five for the father.
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- Ms. Olver said she could not comment on the sentence,
but she did say the Crown is looking at a possible appeal.
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- University of Toronto psychology professor Gary Walters,
who specializes in child abuse and parenting, said in an interview the
sentence seemed light.
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- "What would be an adequate sentence for something
like this? It seems lenient, obviously. The sentences in these kinds of
cases, in child-abuse cases in general, always seem to the public to be
lenient relative to the acts themselves."
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- The couple, from Blackstock, near Port Perry, pleaded
guilty in January to forcible confinement, assault with a weapon and failure
to provide the necessities of life.
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- Although the teenagers were forced to sleep in cages
for 13 years before they were rescued on June 4, 2001, their parents will
be jailed for only three months. Under the provincial jail system, prisoners
are released on full parole after serving one-third of their sentences.
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- The brothers, 17 and 18, are under the protection of
the Durham Children's Aid Society and cannot be identified.
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- Relatives of the boys expressed bitter disappointment
at the short sentence. Their grandfather said doctors who testified at
the couple's sentencing hearing based their evidence on the mother's version
of events. "She led them down the garden path," he said.
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- Judge Halikowski said in his ruling that "there
is no doubt [the boys] were difficult to raise" because they were
born with fetal alcohol syndrome and had attention deficit disorder, a
diagnosis the Crown disputes. But having said that, he remarked that the
couple's treatment of their sons was "beyond comprehension."
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- The boys' grandfather said the judge lost his focus and
judgment when he suggested that what happened was the boys' fault because
they misbehaved.
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- "The boys got the feeling, what value is being put
on their lives?" he told reporters.
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- The couple remained passive as the judge sent them to
jail instead of imposing the conditional sentence with no jail time that
their lawyers had proposed. Judge Halikowski placed them on three years
probation, ordered them not to be in the company of anyone under 16 and
barred them from communicating with their sons without the court's permission.
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- The judge said a long stay in prison would worsen the
couple's physical problems. The 43-year-old adoptive mother, who is the
boys' biological aunt, has arthritis and back problems, and suffers from
depression and constant pain.
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- The 52-year-old adoptive father, the boys' uncle, has
heart problems. He is illiterate, with only a Grade 3 education, the judge
noted. And although he has a criminal record, none of it is for violence,
he added.
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- The judge praised the couple for showing concern for
their sons' health, taking them regularly to doctors and talking to their
teachers about their progress. But he said that "what may have started
as good intention descended quickly into abusive behaviour...that crossed
the threshold to near torture."
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- Alexander Sosna, the mother's lawyer, called the judgment
fair and balanced. He said there were no victors and that the case was
a tragedy for everyone concerned.
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- He lashed out at the Crown, saying that "to suggest,
as was the theory, that this abusive conduct took place every day for 12
or 13 years was a far-fetched fantasy. That was not the reality."
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- The reality, he said, was that "these children were
tethered, these children were abused periodically, but not systematically
on a daily basis."
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- The youths regressed significantly when they were removed
from their parents, but over the past three years, with the help of social
workers and therapists, they are doing better, Ms. Secord said.
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- They are both in high school and in their own words are
doing well. They miss each other; they live in separate group homes.
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- Ms. Secord said the boys have indicated they wish to
stay with the children's aid society until they turn 21.
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- - With a report from Mary Nersessian
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- © Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.
All Rights Reserved. http://globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040706.wxcaged0706/BNStory/Front/
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