The wife of a former Ottawa RCMP counterterrorism officer found guilty in the severe, long-term abuse of his 11-year-old son four years ago has been sentenced to three years for her role in the mistreatment of her stepson.
In November, the boy’s 38-year-old stepmother was found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life and assault with a weapon. Her husband was convicted of aggravated assault, forcible confinement, failing to provide the necessaries of life, assault with a weapon and sexual assault causing bodily harm. The RCMP officer is expected to be sentenced in March.
The disturbing case made national headlines after the emaciated boy escaped from his house and sought help from a neighbour in February 2013. During the trial, the court heard how the RCMP officer kept his son chained in the basement and how the boy was abused, beaten, assaulted and starved over the course of a period of at least six months. The stepmother’s other two children lived upstairs and were not abused during that time.
During the stepmother’s sentencing on Wednesday, Justice Robert Maranger told the court that it had been painful to sit through the evidence in this case and that what happened to the boy was “outrageous.”
“The mother stood idly by when she clearly should have done something to stop it. Her crimes in this case were crimes of omission,” the judge proclaimed.
The Crown had hoped the stepmother, a former senior public servant, would receive a maximum penalty of five years in prison plus additional time for assault for hitting the boy with a wooden spoon. The judge called it a “minor infraction” in comparison with the abuse committed by her husband.
In light of the time she has already served, the woman will spend 17 months behind bars. She will also be under a weapons ban for 10 years and will not be allowed to communicate with her stepson’s family while she is serving her sentence.
“This was a breach of the highest position of trust: a mother and her child,” Maranger said. “She was guilty in that she failed to act as a parent, as a mother, when she had a duty to do so.”
Maranger said he did believe the stepmother was remorseful and had tried to help her stepson on occasion. She had apologized to the boy directly in court in December.
“Nothing will ever excuse the behaviour of a mother for such a lapse in the face of such horror," she said as she wept. "I am very sorry that I failed him as a mother.”
The judge commended the now-14-year-old boy for his bravery and inner strength in testifying on his own behalf during the trial but he also acknowledged that the boy will probably always struggle with the physical and mental scars he suffered and the loss of his childhood.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Joanne Schnurr and files from The Canadian Press
