CAUTION: This article contains allegations of child abuse.
An intense trial in Ontario is ongoing with two women denying charges of first-degree murder in the case of a 12-year-old boy they had intended to adopt.
Residents of Burlington, Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber, are facing charges including confinement, assault involving zip ties, and neglecting the basic needs of the boy’s younger brother.
The 12-year-old, identified as L.L. in court to protect his brother’s identity, passed away on Dec. 21, 2022. The exact circumstances leading to his death have not been conclusively determined in court.
The trial, presided over by Justice Clayton Conlan, commenced in Superior Court in Milton last month with an opening statement from Crown attorney Kelli Frew.
Frew stated, “The [L.L. and J.L.] brothers deserved a loving and caring forever home. Instead, they were placed with the accused individuals, where they faced mistreatment, deprivation, and abuse.”
Initial Placement of 2 Boys in Ottawa Foster Home
The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) relocated the Indigenous brothers from their long-standing foster placement in Ottawa to reside with Cooney and Hamber in Burlington in October 2017, as indicated in the agreed statement of facts.
While Cooney and Hamber were potential adoptive parents, CAS had not fully cleared them, and they received financial support through a provincial adoption program to care for the boys.
Although the boys remained under Ottawa CAS guardianship, Halton CAS supervised the family.
At the time of relocation, the older brother was six years old, around two years older than J.L. The Crown alleges that while living with Cooney and Hamber, the boys faced abuse and neglect.
According to the prosecution, Cooney and Hamber confined the boys, monitored them with cameras, made them wear wetsuits, restrained their clothing and shoes with zip ties causing injuries, limited their food intake, and enforced physical exercise.
Concerned individuals in the boys’ lives, such as a therapist and a teacher, raised red flags and alerted CAS, but the boys remained in the care of Cooney and Hamber for an extended period.
On the night of Dec. 21, 2022, Hamber contacted emergency services reporting that L.L. had stopped breathing, as per Frew.
Upon arrival, first responders found the small, emaciated boy lying unresponsive in a basement room, mistakenly estimating his age to be around six years old. Tragically, he was 12 years old.
L.L. was found in a state of hypothermia and passed away shortly after being taken to the hospital.
Frew mentioned that the women harbored “overt animosity” towards the brothers, especially L.L.
The defense attorneys for Cooney and Hamber opted not to present opening statements.
CAS Rejected Counseling for Boys, Foster Mother Testifies
An essential witness for the prosecution was Heather Walsh, a foster parent who cared for the boys starting when L.L. was two years old and J.L. was 11 months old. The boys were placed in her care by CAS due to concerns about their biological parents’ home environment, where they had been living with their grandparents.
Walsh described L.L. as a lively and social child with delayed speech and dental issues that required extensive
