Three Kingston, Ont., family members were charged last week after police say they jointly abused, confined and threatened to kill a woman for nearly a year.
Police say the American woman came to Canada in 2017, married a man from Kingston, Ont., and moved into his home, where he lived with his mother, father and brother.
Kingston police say that over the course of 11 months, the woman was told she couldn’t leave the home unless accompanied by a member of her family.
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They allege the family isolated her, monitored her calls and took her citizenship papers away. Her jewelry was also allegedly taken from her so that she couldn’t sell it in order to get financial independence.
Police say starting in April, the family members became increasingly violent towards the woman, allegedly hitting her, pulling her hair and threatening to kill her on more than one occasion.
The victim was regularly told that police would not help her because she was not a Canadian citizen and had no proof of who she was, police say.
Finally, after an incident in July when she was allegedly burned with a hot pair of tongs, the woman escaped and hid at an undisclosed location nearby, where she waited for a family member who drove nearly three hours to pick her up.
Police say the victim then went into hiding, afraid that her husband would find her and kill her.
According to a police press release, it was only after being reassured by a lawyer that she would be helped by police that the woman returned to Kingston under the cover of darkness to report the abuse.
The woman’s husband, 29, his mother, 52, and his brother, 27, were all arrested on July 11 after Kingston police executed a search warrant at their family home.
The husband and mother were both charged with theft and for keeping the woman’s identification from her.
The husband and brother were both charged for threatening to kill the woman. The mother was additionally charged with assault with a weapon, and all three were charged with forcible confinement, assault, and harassment by threatening conduct.
-With files from Alexandra Mazur
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