Calgary couple accused of assaulting three children are on trial

Children allege abuse by adoptive parents A Calgary couple is accused of assaulting three children they adopted after their parents were killed in a crash. Kamil Karamali reports.

Crown prosecutors say they were beaten and torture as children and now the adoptive parents of three orphans are on trial for abuse.

Tuesday, a police interview with the oldest child was played in court outlining the gruesome details of the alleged abuse she and her siblings suffered from their aunt and uncle.

The three children, a girl now 19 years old, her younger sister, and brother, have faced some tragic circumstances and it all started more than a decade ago.

The two sisters and their younger brother barely survived a fiery car crash in the United States over 10 years ago.

Their parents were killed.

Court heard they were adopted by their mother’s sister and her husband and moved to Calgary in 2009.

A publication ban protects the identities of the children so we can’t name anyone in the case.

In its opening statement, the crown says the children were abused, even tortured from 2009 until 2011.

It included being kicked, punched and hit with household items.

The crown says the children were also put into cold showers and beaten there as well.

None of this has been ruled as admissible evidence in the case.

During a voir dire being held without a jury, the oldest girl watched a video of her police interview from 2011 that came only after a teacher noticed bruises and marks on the body of one of the children and police began investigating.

Abuse charges were laid against their adoptive parents shortly after.

Meanwhile, defence lawyers argue that the eldest sibling made up the allegations and tha she also influenced her younger siblings to do the same.