Sisters describe trauma caused by scalding death of baby Ryker during sentencing hearing in London

Each year, Ryker Daponte-Michaud’s three older sisters visit his grave for his birthday. They bring him toys, and eat Timbits together.

Those cemetery trips are something the young girls, ranging from eight to 13 years old, described in victim impact statements read to the court Wednesday morning during a two-day sentencing hearing for their mother, Amanda Dumont, and her ex-boyfriend, Scott Bakker.

Justice Renee Pomerance will decide the former Strathroy couple’s fate Thursday morning so she can mull over the lawyers’ final submissions and the emotional accounts of trauma submitted by the three girls and the foster mother they now live with.

Each of them has been diagnosed with PTSD, the foster mom explained.

They struggle with memories of their brother’s body lying on the kitchen floor, his blue lips, and the smell.

The middle daughter, who was five-years-old at the time of Ryker’s death, lived in a group home for a year to help deal with the trauma. During her outbursts, she’d scream how she wishes she were dead like her brother.

“I dream about Ryker. I have bad dreams about Ryker. My good dreams are that he never died,” her statement read.

She remembers tripping over his body when emergency services arrived, as she tried to get her shoes. She has nightmares that Bakker will hurt her, and felt as though she’d been blamed for her brother’s death.

The youngest daughter saw a spider in her brother’s room before he died. Just four-years-old at the time, she thought he became sick from a bite. When she was told how her brother died from lack of medical treatment for serious burns on his body, she felt angry and sad.

“I’m happy I’m not living with Amanda,” said her statement.

The eldest daughter, who is now 13, said she felt sad and angry, and wrote how she was “scared that something was happening to Ryker and I didn’t know how to fix it.”

During final submissions, defence lawyer Perrie Douglas argued that 28-year-old Bakker is less morally culpable in the case. He’d only known the children for a few months, he has up to a grade 8 education, he has limited life skills, and he has intellectual deficits and mental illnesses, Douglas explained.

His childhood was also marked by emotional damage.

Ken Marley, the defence lawyer for 31-year-old Dumont, focused on rehabilitation in his final submissions. Dumont has worked while in jail, she’s counselled others, she’s reconnected with religious beliefs, and she’s even secured help from Christian organizations who’ve agreed to support her when she’s released, he said.

Marley asked that Dumont be given a four-year sentence, while Douglas is asking the judge for a range between four-and-a-half to seven years.

Crown attorney Elizabeth Maguire is arguing for a lengthier sentence of 12 years for each of the accused, to be served in a penitentiary.

“There was no seeking of treatment, there was no seeking of bible studies,” she said of Dumont, referring to time she spent out of jail while on bail. She also skipped counselling sessions.

Meanwhile, the first thing Bakker did upon finding Ryker’s body was run and throw out his drug paraphernalia.

“There’s reasonable inference that these two hid the injury because they didn’t want to get in trouble,” said Maguire.

Ryker Daponte-Michaud died from dehydration and shock quietly in his crib on May 21, 2014. His body had been shutting down slowly, over the three days after he’d been burned by a cup of scalding hot coffee.

The trial, which has gone before the court twice, was called off the first time after Dumont became sick with appendicitis. She had surgery and was unable to participate in the trial so the judge declared a mistrial in December 2016.

Dumont and Bakker were found guilty in September to a joint charge of criminal negligence causing death and separate charges of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Pomerance will hand down her sentencing decision Thursday morning, with the second day of the hearing slated to begin at 10:30 a.m.