Hard time for parents who severely abused twins By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

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More than three years after their twin babies were taken to hospital suffering from such extreme malnourishment that they were near death, a Manitoba couple has been handed double-digit prison sentences in a case a judge described as “heartbreaking.”

“The twins have survived, but they have had to struggle and they will continue to have challenges,” King’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk said Thursday before sentencing their mother and father to 18 years and 12 years in prison, respectively.

“The impact on the twins, the families and the community is devastating, profound, permanent and to a certain extent, still unknown,” she said.

The 40-year-old woman and 57-year-old man, as well as their community, cannot be named to protect the identity of the children.

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The mother and father were each found guilty of two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and two counts of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

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

Court was told the father did not physically abuse the children, but did nothing to prevent it and did not seek medical attention for them.

The children “were physically abused by one parent while the other parent looked the other way,” Zinchuk said. “They were neglected and malnourished. They were denied medical care when it was so obviously needed… The breach of trust is egregious.”

In July 2019, social workers apprehended the girl and boy, who were 11 months old, and took them to a hospital where they were found to have more than 40 bone fractures between them. Both children were significantly delayed in their development and the girl, the more gravely injured of the two, required emergency surgery to relieve swelling to her brain.

“They were neglected and malnourished. They were denied medical care when it was so obviously needed… The breach of trust is egregious.”–Justice Sandra Zinchuk

The girl has since been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, while her brother has vision problems and suffers from regular headaches, their adoptive mother, a doctor present the night they were brought to hospital, told court at a sentencing hearing last summer.

The children, and the pain they suffered, had a profound effect on everyone who came into contact with them, local RCMP said in a community impact statement filed with the court.

“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,” RCMP said.

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

The mother’s older children testified she 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 twin’s mouths to keep them from crying.

“The evidence was clear (the mother) treated the twins differently from her other children.”–Justice Sandra Zinchuk

Witnesses testified the woman said she “hated the twins” and “wished she never had them.”

“The evidence was clear (the mother) treated the twins differently from her other children,” Zinchuk said Thursday. “She did not provide love and affection to the twins and acknowledged that she did not feel the same about them as her other children.”

When extended family members expressed concern about the children’s malnourished appearance, the mother explained it away as a result of them being born prematurely; she 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.

The couple shared three older children who are now in the care of an aunt and uncle. The couple’s youngest child, not yet born at the time the twins were taken by social workers, is in the care of the twins’ adoptive mother.

“While all the children are now residing in safe and loving homes, the reality is that they will not grow up together as siblings in a single-family unit.”–Justice Sandra Zinchuk

“While all the children are now residing in safe and loving homes, the reality is that they will not grow up together as siblings in a single-family unit,” Zinchuk said.

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 expenses.

Zinchuk declined the restitution request, saying it was not supported by case law.

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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