Mending battered twins’ broken babyhood Physician who adopted babies tells tragic tale to judge who mulls fate of parents By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 26, 2022

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This article was published 25/08/2022 (852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years after she and her 11-month old twin brother were taken to a rural Manitoba hospital near death — their bodies broken and malnourished — Jody thanks God in her prayers every night that she can walk and talk.

“It’s a tragedy that a child who was born perfect doesn’t get to take walking and talking for granted,” the twins’ adoptive mother, a Manitoba doctor present the night they arrived at the hospital, told court at a sentencing hearing for their biological parents this month.

Jody is not the girl’s real name. Her parents, who cannot be named to protect the identity of their children, were convicted after a trial last year of two counts of failing to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The mother was convicted of two additional counts of aggravated assault.

Prosecutors are seeking a 22-year prison sentence for the children’s mother and a 12-year sentence for their father.

‘What makes this case truly rare, repugnant and reprehensible is that this is more than a case of parents treating their babies as unwanted… It is a case of a mother who hated her babies, hated them to the point she broke their bodies, their skulls, and nearly killed (her daughter) in doing so.’– Crown attorney Sam Levkov

“All cases of parents harming their children are tragic,” Crown attorney Sam Levkov told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk. “What makes this case truly rare, repugnant and reprehensible is that this is more than a case of parents treating their babies as unwanted… It is a case of a mother who hated her babies, hated them to the point she broke their bodies, their skulls, and nearly killed (her daughter) in doing so.”

Social workers apprehended the twins in July 2019 and took them to hospital where they were found to have more than 40 bone fractures between them. Both children were significantly delayed in their development and Jody, the more gravely injured of the two, required emergency surgery to relieve swelling to her brain.

The children, and the pain they suffered, had a profound effect on everyone who came into contact with them, court heard in a community impact statement submitted by the local RCMP detachment. The couple’s community cannot be made public.

“From sleepless nights to traumatic memories, anyone who had seen these children in person, or the pictures taken of them, will never be able to unsee the broken, near-death images of two babies stuck in a life that was destined to harm them,” Levkov said, reading from the victim impact statement.

Jody has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, while her brother has vision problems and suffers from regular headaches, their adoptive mother told court. Both have made “incredible gains” since coming into her care, when a task as simple as changing a diaper was occasion for heartbreak, the woman said.

“No matter how carefully I lifted their bottoms, it would jostle their partially healed fractures and they would cry and cry,” said the woman, who is also in the process of adopting the children’s younger sibling, who was seized at birth following their mother’s arrest.

Both twins remain “emotionally fragile,” the woman said.

“Three years later, we are still picking up the pieces of their broken babyhood,” she said. “The depths of their need for affection is insatiable.”

‘No matter how carefully I lifted their bottoms, it would jostle their partially healed fractures and they would cry and cry.’– Woman attempting to adopt children

The female offender’s older children testified at trial their mother would often strike the twins in the face or arm and would routinely pick them up roughly by one arm or leg. Court heard testimony the woman would leave the children outside for hours at a time while she slept or watched television. On other occasions, she stuffed socks into the children’s mouths to keep them from crying.

“By all accounts, (she) treated the twins differently than her other children… in fact, she verbally expressed that she hated the twins, that they were the worst babies ever and she wished she never had them,” Zinchuk said when convicting the couple last January.

When extended family members expressed concern about the children’s malnourished appearance, the female offender explained it away as a result of them being born prematurely and claimed they had been seen by a nurse practitioner who gave them a clean bill of health. Concerns about the children’s swollen arms or legs were dismissed with a claim they had been bitten by a bee.

Court was told the two offenders had a volatile relationship blighted by drug and alcohol abuse.

Defence lawyers are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the children’s mother and two years for the father.

Court heard the male offender did not physically abuse the children, but did nothing to prevent it.

“Their father, their supposed protector, stood by and, incomprehensibly, did nothing,” Levkov said.

In a tear-filled address to court, the female offender blamed her actions on drugs and “thank(ed) God my children are alive and resilient… and will be taken care of and loved.

“I can now say I completely comprehend and understand the appalling and severe condition my children were in because of me,” she said.

Levkov rejected the woman’s drug excuse, saying her addiction didn’t prevent her from showing love and attention to her other children.

“To show babies such indifference, such brutality, while at the same time loving and caring for their siblings underlies offending that is abhorrent beyond description,” he said.

‘I can now say I completely comprehend and understand the appalling and severe condition my children were in because of me.’– Mother of abused children

The Crown’s sentencing recommendation included $50,000 in restitution to the children’s adoptive mother, who has had to reduce her practice hours to care for them. She and her husband have incurred tens of thousands of dollars in household and medical-related expenses.

The woman said she will put the money in trust for the children until they turn 18.

The woman closed her victim impact statement by addressing the children’s abusers, saying they will never know the strong and determined people they have become.

“You are missing out and I am rolling in the riches of knowing these children,” she said. “This has been harder, but also better than I could ever have imagined.”

The judge has not set a date to deliver her sentence.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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