No jail time for aunt convicted of assaulting young children whose parents died in 2006 car crash

WARNING: Graphic content. Discretion is advised.

A woman found guilty of assaulting two orphans in her care will not be serving any jail time.

At a sentencing hearing in Calgary, Justice Sandy Park sentenced her to an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered that she report to a probation officer.

Earlier this month, Park said he accepted testimony from the woman’s trial that she hit her nieces with wooden spoons, electrical cords and other objects.

Park rejected allegations of abuse that included piercing the girls’ tongues with needles, making them drink their own vomit and burning them with barbecue lighters.

The woman’s husband was acquitted on assault and criminal negligence charges.

The couple became guardians of the girls and their younger brother after the children’s parents died in a fiery crash in the United States.

The Crown had asked for 18 months to two years in jail.

Neither the children nor their aunt and uncle can be named under a publication ban.