The father of a developmentally disabled young woman testified against his ex-wife Thursday, telling the Calgary court he was shocked his daughter died.
Patricia Couture, 70, is accused of criminal negligence causing death.
Her 38-year-old daughter, Melissa, was found dead in their southwest Calgary home on April 26, 2016.
She weighed just 23 kg (50 lbs) when she died and had multiple deep bedsores that exposed her bones.
READ MORE: Young disabled woman would have been in pain and discomfort prior to death, court hears
Prior to Bryan Couture’s testimony, he had a lawyer speak to the court on his behalf.
Defence lawyer Ian Mackay said he wished to put on the record his client’s protection under section 13 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which reads:
“A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence.”
READ MORE: Trial underway for Calgary mother accused in death of disabled daughter
Bryan told court leading up to his daughter’s death, he was preparing to forcefully take Melissa from her mother’s home to see a doctor.
He said he had broached the subject with Patricia several times.
“I left that with Pat and she said, ‘I will get back to you on that,’” he said. “After a couple of weeks…I said, ‘Where are you at in regards to the doctor?’ and she decided against it.”
“I said, ‘Well you gotta take her somewhere,’” Bryan testified. “After that I knew what I was going to do…but Melissa passed away. I would have taken Melissa out of there by force.”
“For me to take her, I would have literally had to break the door down in the house.”
He testified he would be locked in the home every time he would visit.
“Pat had the key…pinned to her sweater…and everything was deadbolted,” he said, explaining when he wanted to leave, he had to have Patricia let him out.
“I said, ‘Is that because of demons that you don’t want to take her to the doctors?’ And she said yes.”
Melissa’s father was visibly shaken as he told court he didn’t realize how bad the situation was, saying he only realized after reading details in a media report Thursday morning before court.
“I’m shocked that she died. I feel terrible.”
“I believe it said there was exposed bone and I couldn’t believe that,” he added.
Watch below: The trial for a Calgary woman accused in the death of her developmentally disabled daughter began Tuesday. Nancy Hixt has the details from court on Sept. 5.
Bryan said following his divorce from Patricia in 1998, he would see Melissa once a week at Patricia’s home.
He testified he looked at Melissa as a special gift. He said she was healthy until about five or six months before she passed away.
Her father said that’s when she started losing weight.
“She definitely was getting thinner and her mobility wasn’t good at all,” Brian testified.
“She didn’t have the mobility of her arms and hands that she used to and her feet twisted quite a bit, so of course she couldn’t walk.”
He said by 2016, she was having trouble eating.
“Pat would use the spoon and have to feed her to make sure she got the nourishment,” he said, adding she sometimes choked on food.
“Let’s say it wasn’t going down real good,” Bryan testified.
He said she noticed she had some problems with her teeth.
“You could see a little bit of enamel came off…that’s what we noticed.”
Earlier court heard Melissa had a “complete breakdown of her oral complex, including broken and decayed teeth, irritation and erosion of the gums and cyst formations in the bone…some teeth were decayed to the gum line.”
Bryan said he last saw Melissa about four days before she died. He said he didn’t realize how much weight she had lost; he guessed she was maybe 35 pounds underweight.
He said he did notice an odour in the house for a few months prior to her death.
“It was just definitely a smell of excrement,” he said.
“I knew at this time Pat was changing Melissa on the couch, which was easier for her than taking her to the washroom. And eventually there came an odour.”
He testified he would open doors when he would stop by the house “to try and get some of the odour out.”
When he confronted Patricia about the odour, he said she told him “it was demons living in the walls; that’s what they smelled like.”
Bryan described Patricia as “a believer.”
“She follows the Bible stringently. She’s right into the word. She has very strong beliefs,” he testified.
Thursday morning, a neighbour told court Patricia spoke of “evil” affecting her disabled daughter.
Martin Thouin testified Thursday he lived by Couture for five years.
He told court he saw Melissa a few times over the years, the last of which was in 2015. Thouin said she was in a wheelchair at that time.
He described a heated conversation that took place with the accused following an incident with Thouin’s daughter.
“There was one time where my daughter was going through several people’s yards…building little nests out of pine cones,” Thouin said.
“Pat got very upset,” Thouin said, adding he then “tore a strip off of Pat” for getting mad at his daughter.
“She said, ‘Your daughter cannot in any circumstance go on my property; it scares my daughter Melissa to death.’”
Thouin said at the time, “Melissa was screaming in the house.”
He said Pat told him “the nests my daughter was making for her stuffies were causing ‘evil’ to go into the house because it scared Melissa so much.”
Bryan will continue his testimony Friday morning; Patricia is also expected to testify in her own defence.
Comments