She suffered four years of beatings, starvation and humiliation at the hands of the woman she called “Mom.”
When the dangerously malnourished 12-year-old girl escaped the prison that was Nicole Acoby’s Arlington Street home in August 2023, she weighed 46 pounds and was on the verge of death.
For her crimes, Acoby pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and failing to provide the necessaries of life. On Tuesday, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“The child abuse is breathtaking in its brutality and sickening to its core,” inflicted by someone the child “should have been able to trust more than anyone in her life,” said provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson.
Acoby’s 23-year-old daughter Aleahyah Acoby-Roulette has been charged with the same offences, but has not entered any pleas and remains before the court.
Crown attorney Alanna Littman and defence lawyer Morgan Lawrence jointly recommended Nicole Acoby receive the 12-year-prison sentence, which is two years shy of the maximum sentence allowed for aggravated assault under the Criminal Code.
“All cases of parents harming their children are tragic. This however, is a matter that goes way beyond just tragedy.”– Crown attorney Alanna Littman
“All cases of parents harming their children are tragic,” Littman said. “This however, is a matter that goes way beyond just tragedy. This is not about addiction. It is about malice and targeted cruelty.”
Court heard the child’s biological parents placed her in Acoby’s care “to raise as her own” when she was two years old.
“During the first years of living with the family, it appeared she did have a normal life,” but starting in August 2019, when the girl was eight, “something changed in the household,” Littman said.
As per an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Acoby assaulted the girl with her hands, metal bars, wooden planks and “predominantly” an extension cord.
The assaults left her bruised and bloodied, and with fractures to her spine.
Acoby repeatedly withheld food from the girl for up to two days at a time, “forcing her to watch as (Acoby’s) biological children ate,” says the agreed statement of facts. “The victim suffered severe nutritional deficiencies requiring intravenous feeding in hospital for several weeks once she escaped the home.”
Acoby locked the girl in a bedroom and kept her from school. In the 2022-23 school year, the girl was absent 100 of 193 school days.
“Nicole Acoby would tell the victim that she did not deserve to go to school due to her behaviour,” says the agreed statement of facts.
Acoby would frequently force the girl’s face into a mattress, leaving her struggling to breathe, punishment for not complying with Acoby’s wishes, Littman said.
“Nicole Acoby took no steps to interfere with these acts and took no steps to protect the victim from any position of danger.”– from the agreed statement of facts
In an interview with police, the girl said the assaults at some point were “taken over” by Acoby-Roulette, whose assaults allegedly included duct taping the girl to a workout bench or basement telepost.
“Nicole Acoby was aware of further assaultive acts experienced by the victim at the hands of (Acoby-Roulette),” says the agreed statement of facts. “Nicole Acoby took no steps to interfere with these acts and took no steps to protect the victim from any position of danger.”
Wearing only a diaper and with duct tape still clinging to her arms, the girl fled the home Aug. 17, 2023, and was found by a neighbourhood resident in the area of Spruce Street, Littman told court.
“That bystander was so overwhelmed by the condition of the child in front of them that they contacted authorities,” she said.
The girl was taken to Children’s Hospital, where medical staff assessed her as being “profoundly malnourished.” Her body was covered in cuts, bruises and open sores and she had healing fractures to her spine.
In the year since she fled Acoby’s home, the girl has recovered from most of her physical injuries and is back in school where she is “flourishing and thriving,” Littman said.
Years of malnutrition may have affected the girl’s cognitive development, and it remains uncertain what psychological damage she may suffer in the years ahead.
“We simply…. will never know what the lasting impact will be on her cognitive development and cannot begin to understand the emotional impact of being tortured, abused and neglected by the offender who was entrusted with her care,” Littman said.
A psychologist who treated the girl following her escape provided a victim impact statement to court saying she continues to suffer from “inappropriate guilt and shame,” believing she deserved the abuse because she was “a bad kid.”
“We simply…. will never know what the lasting impact will be on her cognitive development and cannot begin to understand the emotional impact of being tortured, abused and neglected by the offender who was entrusted with her care.”– Alanna Littman
Lawrence provided court with no details of Acoby’s background, arguing in part that doing so might compromise her daughter’s court case.
Lawrence did say Acoby’s Indigenous background and personal history were taken into consideration by both the Crown and defence in arriving at an appropriate sentencing recommendation, as was Acoby’s guilty plea.
Provided an opportunity to address court, Acoby said only: “I just want to apologize to my family.” It was only after Eyrikson asked two follow-up questions that Acoby confirmed the intended apology recipients included the victim.
“I have not found her words particularly compelling or remorseful, quite frankly,” Eyrikson said.
But for Acoby’s guilty plea, Eyrikson said he likely would have imposed a 14-year sentence.
“I am at a loss of words to describe the horror you inflicted on this young girl,” he said.
Acoby received credit for time served, reducing her remaining sentence to just over 10 years.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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