Last girl accused in swarming death of Kenneth Lee pleads guilty to manslaughter

Kenneth Lee is shown in a Toronto Police Service handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Toronto Police Service

TORONTO — The last girl set to face trial in the deadly group attack of a homeless Toronto man pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday, making her one of seven girls to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the case.

The girl, one of eight teen girls accused in the 2022 death of 59-year-old Kenneth Lee, was scheduled to go on trial on a charge of second-degree murder this week. She pleaded not guilty to that charge, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

In December 2022, Lee was in a downtown Toronto parkette with a friend when they encountered a group around midnight, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court.

Lee died after he was swarmed by a group of teens, the court heard. The fatal group attack was captured on security video, and the footage served as a central piece of evidence in a trial for another of the girls.

Police arrested eight girls between the ages of 13 and 16 in the hours that followed his death and charged all of them with second-degree murder.

Seven of them have since pleaded guilty to lesser charges — five to manslaughter, one to assault and one to assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.

One girl is awaiting a verdict later this month after concluding a judge-alone trial. She tried to plead guilty to manslaughter but her plea was rejected by the Crown.

The girl who pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday was 14 years old at the time of the incident. The agreed statement of facts prosecutors read in court said the girl “hit, punched, kicked and filmed” Lee during the attack.

At no point during the attack on Lee was the girl in possession of a knife or any other weapon, the statement read, and she did not stab Lee.

The statement also said the girl knew that the risk of bodily harm was an “objectively foreseeable” consequence of the group assault, citing the blood “clearly observable” on Lee’s face.

During the trial for the girl who is still awaiting a verdict, court heard that an autopsy found that Lee died from shock due to blood loss after he was stabbed in the heart.

Court heard during the trial that he also had a smaller stab wound that did not contribute to his death, as well as a range of bruises and other injuries.

A paramedic who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack testified at the trial that neither paramedics nor Lee realized he had been stabbed until after he collapsed. He ultimately died on the operating table at St. Michael’s hospital in the early hours of Dec. 18, 2022, court heard.

The girl who pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday is set to be sentenced at a later date.

Last week, the Crown and the defence made sentencing submissions for another of the girls who pleaded guilty to manslaughter. They asked that the girl, who was 16 at the time of the incident, be handed a sentence of 15 months probation. That sentencing decision is expected later this month.

None of the accused can be identified because they were minors at the time of the incident.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.