EDMONTON – Alberta’s highest court has rejected a Crown appeal to extend the sentence of an Edmonton woman who killed her four-year-old niece after assuming care of the little girl and her five siblings.
In April 2012, the 27-year-old woman was sentenced to 7-1/2 years in prison and three years probation for manslaughter after she admitted to assaulting the girl and failing to seek medical care in the three days that followed. The woman’s lengthy sentencing hearing highlighted problems in the provincial child welfare system, and a family history of abuse.
The government placed the six children, all under the age of seven, in their aunt’s west-end home in August 2008 because their parents, the accused’s brother and sister-in-law, were drug addicts. The girl died of head injuries in January 2009.
In a decision released Wednesday, the panel of three Court of Appeal of Alberta judges considered a longer sentence, but were bound by a Supreme Court decision that requires sentencing judges to pay particular attention to the circumstances and background of aboriginal offenders.
“I might have imposed a higher sentence that would have precluded probation,” wrote Justice Keith Ritter. “However, I am instructed by the Supreme Court to defer to the decisions of sentencing judges on both the length and type of sentence imposed.”
Justice Jean Cote concurred with Ritter and wrote, “in places I must do so,” because of the Supreme Court guidelines on aboriginal sentencing.
In March 2012, Canada’s highest court decided that judges, when appropriate, should take into account educational issues, unemployment, substance abuse, family violence and the disproportionately high levels of incarceration for aboriginal people.
The woman convicted in the death of her niece cannot be identified because she and the children were involved with Alberta Children and Youth Services. The woman “suffered physical, emotional and mental abuse from her mother with ongoing neglect and abandonment,” court heard.
The woman had multiple addictions when Alberta Social Services left her young relatives in her care.
On Jan. 13, 2009, the aunt’s common-law husband called 911. When paramedics arrived, they found the girl dead. Her head, legs, arms and face were severely bruised, two of her ribs were fractured and she had serious head injuries.
The woman admitted she had assaulted the girl three days earlier, but had never contacted any professional help despite the child’s deteriorating condition. The girl became sicker, fell into a coma and died in a diaper on her bedroom floor.
The Crown sought a prison sentence of 12 years because “the sentencing judge overemphasized rehabilitation and failed to give adequate weight to deterrence and denunciation.”
After credit for time served, the woman had two years left to serve on her sentence. That sentence by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice John Rooke was the longest term of incarceration possible that still allowed for years of probation that would increase treatment options for the woman, the appeal court noted.
At sentencing, Rooke was adamant that the child welfare system was not on trial.
“Whatever the circumstances, this offender had the final choice here,” Rooke said in his lengthy decision. “Responsibility rests on this offender, not on the support system. The buck has to stop somewhere and it has to stop with this offender.”
The five remaining children are now staying with their grandmother.
A provincial fatality inquiry has been called into the child’s death, but has not yet been scheduled.
Comments