Amy had just picked up her seven-week-old infant from the babysitter when she noticed her daughter’s ankle was swollen. Her fourth child was crying uncontrollably and she didn’t know why.
Neither did her babysitter.
“I said ‘it looks swollen, what happened?’” Amy, who asked Global News not to use her real name, said in an interview. “She just said, ‘I don’t know, it looked fine.’”
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But her child was far from being fine. It was Easter weekend this year and Amy rushed her crying baby to the emergency room at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ont.
“The doctors were basically yelling at me because I had no idea she was injured like that,” Amy said.
Her child had four broken bones in her right ankle. Children’s Aid Society workers soon arrived at the hospital. So did the police.
VIDEO: An Ontario mother speaks out after babysitter charged with assaulting her 7-week-old baby.
“The police didn’t tell me until I got to the station that she had four broken bones in her and my heart just sank. I remember sitting there just in shock,” she said.
The police took Amy to the station while Children’s Aid social workers took her infant daughter who was injured and two older children out of her home and sent them to stay with family — a grandmother and aunt — for seven weeks.
“I had to go visit my kids in a CAS building in a little room for two hours a week, maybe three hours,” Amy said. “It was hell. I know I did nothing wrong and to see my kids in this little room.”
“My daughter’s autistic and being trapped in this little room with her mom … it wasn’t fair.”
After a weeks-long investigation, the Hamilton police made an arrest and in July this year, Amy’s babysitter, 45-year-old Shelly Kuzyk, was charged with aggravated assault.
Previous charges
But this wasn’t the first time she had been arrested. Kuzyk was charged in 1997 with second degree murder following the death of 15-month-old Tristin Tooke – her godson.
Kuzyk had been a close childhood friend of Tristin’s mother, Rosemarie Simon, for years and was one of the first people to see Tristin in hospital after he was born.
WATCH: Ontario mother speaks about the death of her child who was killed in 1997
In January 1997, Simon and the father Rob Tooke received a panicked call from Kuzyk, saying she had given Tristin a bath at 3 a.m. and he had fallen from her waterbed.
“I’m trying to be strong and to do what I need to do for him, but even after 20 years it’s very hard to talk about,” Rob Tooke told Global News.
The parents rushed to the hospital and discovered that their child had two skull fractures, multiple bruises, and loosened teeth.
“How does a baby fall from a water bed this high onto the floor and get multiple skull fractures? The back of his head was smashed in, his penis was bruised, like somebody was pinching it,” Tooke said.
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Tristin died roughly 16 hours after being admitted to hospital.
Simon remembers only taking a few steps after leaving the hospital before crumpling to the ground.
“I just remember leaving and running and to be honest with you, I think I was running for the highway cause I wanted to jump out in front of a car,” Simon said, holding back tears.
“But I stopped, and I just fell against the wall and just sat there and cried,” she said. “Everything goes blurry after that as you can imagine.”
Kuzyk was later charged with second-degree murder after Tristin died of his injuries.
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Hamilton police Staff Sgt. Steve Hrab was leading the investigation at the time and told Global News that “blunt force” was applied to Tristin.
“One of the doctors had said that it would have been more likely for Tristin to have fallen off a balcony or gotten into a car accident than – and sustain those injuries – than falling off the waterbed,” Simon said.
Kuzyk was found not guilty in February 1999. But Hrab said he’s not surprised to see her name in the news again.
“I thought we’d be hearing from her earlier, or about her earlier,” he said.
Testimony from Dr. Charles Smith
One of the reasons Kuzyk was acquitted in Tristin’s case was the testimony of Dr. Charles Smith, a now discredited pediatric forensic pathologist. Unlike the other pathologists who testified, Smith told the jury Tristin’s injuries could have happened before the infant was in Kuzyk’s care.
Smith claimed there was no exact science to determine what time the injuries could have been inflicted.
“I along with the investigators wrote a letter to the chief coroner at the time saying that he should review Dr. Smith and his credentials and his reliability in court because we were just flummoxed with his evidence at the time,” Hrab said.
WATCH: ‘Incompetent’ pathologist ruined countless lives, but why was Charles Smith never charged?
Smith’s fall from grace began in 2003 after serious problems were discovered in his work. An inquiry in 2008 found Smith “actively misled” his superiors and “made false and misleading statements” in court. It also noted that he “lacked the requisite training and qualifications” to work as a pediatric forensic pathologist.
The findings from the disgraced pathologist had helped convict at least 14 people, many of whom spent years in prison and had their children removed. The Ontario government financially compensated many of the wrongfully convicted and their families and Smith would later be stripped of his medical licence.
“If there was a case, the Crown had the opportunity to try and reopen the case and seek leave to try the case again, that was never done so as far as I’m concerned, not having taken any steps, that matter should end,” said lawyer Asgar Manek, who is currently representing Kuzyk on her current charge. He said his client intends to plead not guilty.
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“They pretty much sent me a letter stating that the case involving Tristin’s case did not meet the requirements and that they would not be moving forward. I believe they were more focused on getting people who were charged and guilty out of jail.”
Amy’s daughter is now eight months old and has fully recovered. The Hamilton mother is warning other parents to take a close look at who is watching their children.
“You just have to hold your children closer, my children are everything to me,” she said. “You can’t trust anybody now a days. If [people] are having their neighbours watch their kid, maybe take a closer look like just to be safe.”
Simon says she’s still haunted by the death of her little boy.
“I’m very thankful that her baby is still alive and that she’ll get to see her grow up because I’ll never get to see my son and it’s very difficult,” she said. “It’s very hard to watch and see all my friends with their kids. I was too afraid to have children after Tristin died so I didn’t even get to give the love I had to a child.”
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