A rural Manitoba couple who subjected their toddler twins to months of physically devastating abuse and neglect — before the children were finally apprehended by social workers — have lost their bid to reduce their double-digit prison sentences.
“The circumstances of the child abuse are extreme and, thankfully, highly unusual,” Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Chris Mainella said in a 22-page written decision released Tuesday.
The children’s then-40-year-old mother (identified in the decision by the initials A.L.) and 57-year-old father (J.C.) were sentenced in December 2022 to 18 years and 12 years in prison, respectively, in a case the trial judge, King’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk, described as “heartbreaking.”
Both parents were convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and two counts of failing to provide the necessaries of life. A.L. was convicted of two additional counts of aggravated assault.
Social workers apprehended the 11-month-old boy and girl in July 2019 and took them to hospital, where they were found to have more than 40 bone fractures between them. Both children were malnourished and significantly delayed in their development. The girl, the more gravely injured of the two, required emergency surgery to relieve swelling to her brain.
Court heard at trial A.L. physically abused the twins, while J.C. looked the other way. Witnesses testified A.L. said she “hated the twins” and “wished she never had them.”
The couple, who shared four other children, struggled with drug addictions at the time the twins were abused.
“A highly unusual feature of the child abuse in this case … is despite both A.L. and J.C. having substance abuse issues, both accused were mature and responsible parents to their other children,” Mainella said. “No credible evidence explaining A.L.’s discriminatory aggression (or J.C.’s tolerance of the abuse) was adduced either at the trial or at the sentencing. It is an unresolved mystery of this case.”
A.L.’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 twins’ mouths to keep them from crying.
When extended family members expressed concern about the children’s malnourished appearance, A.L. 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.
A.L. argued on appeal that Zinchuk’s sentence didn’t take into account her remorse and prospects for rehabilitation and that the sentence was too harsh when compared to sentences handed to offenders convicted of similar crimes.
“The case law makes clear that a sustained pattern of physical abuse of a child, in a situation of egregious breach of trust, that results in serious injuries may result in a double-digit prison sentence,” Mainella said.
An appellate court should only intervene when a sentence is found to be a “substantial and marked departure” from the norm for such cases, Mainella said.
“Perfect parity in sentencing is neither attainable or desirable,” he said. “Differences in sentences for similar offenders committing similar crimes are to be expected … In terms of A.L., I do not have a parity concern.”
J.C., a farmer, argued he should have received a significantly lesser sentence than A.L., given he did not actively abuse the children. J.C.’s lawyer argued at trial he was “psychologically controlled” by A.L., who he trusted to care for the children while he worked the farm.
“I reject… that his conscious decision to stand by and permit the prolonged abuse and neglect of two infant children in need of immediate medical assistance is somehow materially less morally blameworthy than if he intentionally committed acts of violence,” Mainella said.
There is “no basis to disturb the judge’s finding that J.C. failed the most basic duty of a parent — protecting a child from a known danger,” he said. “J.C. was more than indifferent. He knew the twins needed immediate medical care, but consciously chose not to pursue it.”
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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