REGINA – There were red flags, according to the woman who supervised Lee Bonneau’s case file.
Patricia Hickie-Schaeffer, who worked at the Fort Qu’Appelle social services office that handled Bonneau’s case, testified Tuesday at a coroner’s inquest into the six-year-old boy’s death.
She described signs of domestic violence or possibly even sexual abuse involved in the life of Bonneau, who was killed by another boy on the Kahkewistahaw First Nation in August 2013.
“There was a threat that we didn’t address,” Hickie-Schaeffer said.
The inquest reviewed assessments of Bonneau’s life at home with parents David Bonneau and Stacey Merk. Social workers described Merk as an “inadequate” parent.
READ MORE: Lee Bonneau, one year later: what’s changed?
Lee Bonneau had been in a foster home for only a couple of months when he was found dead shortly after walking with an older boy outside a recreation centre.
“It shattered my world,” David Bonneau said during testimony that wrapped up Tuesday. He believes he was “left in the dark” on matters of the child’s custody.
The goal of the inquest is for a jury to come up with recommendations to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. Much of the two-week process is focused on the tangled web of social services, of which it appears the family fell through the cracks.
Merk broke down crying Monday while describing the day her son was taken away in June 2013 and placed in care. Bonneau’s testimony began with accusing social services of tearing his family apart.
In a report released last year, Saskatchewan’s children’s advocate Bob Pringle determined that the 10-year-old boy who killed Bonneau had behavioural issues and probably shouldn’t have been in the community unsupervised.
On Wednesday, it’s expected the inquest will hear from police officers and there will be more details about the circumstances surrounding Bonneau’s death.
With files from The Canadian Press
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