REGINA – Supporters of the victim’s family in the Goforth murder trial reached a level of closure with the guilty verdict, but they don’t feel all the blame has been laid.
“Social Services, we always believed they should be here too; on trial with them. They’re the second caregivers. They placed those children in that home. They failed the mom too”, the victim’s family spokesperson said after the verdict on Saturday.
The defence called the role of social services into question throughout the trial. Kevin Goforth’s attorney Noah Evanchuk emphasized that the girls were placed in at least nine foster homes before arriving in the Goforth’s care.
“I think I stated objective facts about how social services attempted to deflect responsibility for how they treated these children throughout their young lives,” Evanchuk said.
The girls were first removed from their home in 2009.
Tammy Goforth was found guilty of second degree murder, while her husband Kevin was convicted of manslaughter.
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The four year-old girl died in the August 2012, nine months after being placed in the Goforth’s care. The Goforths were also convicted of abusing and neglecting the two year-old sister.
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Tammy and Kevin were considered “person’s of sufficient interest” (PSI) by social services. These are people who have a close, pre-existing connect to the child and becomes primary caregiver.
According to Child and Family Services executive director Natalie Huber, PSI homes had less contact with social services in than they do now.
“Prior to the changes instituted to policy in November 2014, there were no minimum contact standards set forth in policy. Common practice at that time included annual contact with the caregiver and child with additional visits scheduled based on the needs of the family,” she said in a statement.
The province’s advocate for children, Bob Pringle, helped with the review that led to the new guidelines, which include at monthly monitoring of PSI candidates for at least six months and mandatory annual check-ins.
However he said this isn’t enough.
“We believe that the annual review to assess how things are going is too long,” Pringle said.
“It should be for at least the next two quarters, and then maybe an annual review.”
Pringle added that things have improved since 2012, but there is still work to do in making sure all children in foster care are in safe homes.
The Goforth’s sentencing date will be held on February 12th.
With files from Teri Fikowski and Alexa Huffman
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