Background: The victim's room in a photo taken after he died and filed as a court exhibit. (Ontario Superior Court in Milton, Ontario). Inset: Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber (Facebook).
Two women in Canada abused their foster sons so badly that one of them wasted away until he died, soaking wet in a locked basement room, a judge has ruled.
Becky Hamber, 46, and Brandy Cooney, 44, were found guilty by an Ontario Superior Court judge of first-degree murder in the death of their 12-year-old son, referred to as L.L., the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The defendants were also convicted of confinement, assault with a weapon, and failing to provide the necessaries of life.
They had pleaded not guilty.
Justice Clayton Conlan wrote that it was "not a close call" to find the women guilty of unlawfully confining L.L.'s younger brother, referred to as J.L. There was "overwhelming" evidence against them.
"I have no reasonable doubt as to whether there was a reasonable alternative to what the accused did," he added. "[L]ocking J. up like a prisoner caused far more harm than anything that J. did or could have done if he was not locked up like a prisoner."
The judge stated in his roughly 300-page decision that the evidence presented at trial for Hamber and Cooney was "replete with contradictions, inconsistencies and things lacking in basic common sense."
Of the defendants, he said they "paint a picture of loathe and hate" by both toward the boys, "especially towards L." Hamber and Cooney "hated the boys" and they "deeply resented them having come into their lives and not having turned out to be what was expected."
As Law&Crime previously reported, on Dec. 21, 2022, first responders arrived at the couple's Milton home in Ontario, Canada, to find L.L. unresponsive, soaking wet, and covered in vomit. He was reportedly so emaciated that, though he was 12 years old, he looked like he could have been 6.
L.L. was later pronounced dead — possibly from hypothermia or cardiac arrest due to severe malnourishment, a pathologist reported, though they stated they were unable to rule on an exact cause of death.
After an investigation, Hamber and Cooney were arrested and charged. The trial began in September, and over the ensuing months, the judge — and the public — heard disturbing reports of abuse.
The two boys were kept inside their rooms for 18 hours at a time, with J.L. testifying during the trial that in the last year of his brother's life, he would hardly see him except when passing him in the hall. The women also placed the children in zip-tied wet suits, would zip-tie helmets to their heads, and made them sleep in tents and eat pureed food.
Texts between Hamber and Cooney appeared to show that they deeply resented the boys, with messages calling L.L. a "loser" and "idiot" being sent among themselves and one of the women saying about one of the boys that they "hope he gets an infection."
In their closing arguments, prosecutors alleged the women starved their foster children and kept them isolated in wet suits and helmets because they "hated" them. They pointed to other messages from the women, including a text where one of them allegedly wrote, "Shiver shiver dumb f–" and suggested using exercise as a way for the boys to stay warm.
The defendants' defense attorneys argued that the children were difficult to handle and that measures such as the helmets and wet suits were designed to keep the kids from having bathroom accidents throughout the home and to prevent them from hurting themselves. The defense also contended that child aid workers and health professionals who checked on the boys knew about the women's methods and never raised any concerns with them.
Ultimately, though, Conlan found that the evidence against Hamber and Cooney showed they were guilty.
A sentencing date has not yet been set. They face life in prison, per the Toronto Sun.
Comments