Fathers Call Foils Attempted Murder of 5 Year-Old

Catherine Solyom, CanWest News Service

Canada, National Post, Saturday, April 23, 2005

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c1f4deab-f4e2-4c48-84da-aabd36705456

OTTAWA - Mr. Justice Jean-Jude Chabot called it a terrible crime of pride - to plot to kill one's little girl so the other parent can't have her.

But the Superior Court judge spared a mother and grandmother prison time yesterday, giving them both conditional sentences for conspiring to murder their five-year-old child.

The two defendants, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl, had taken her from their home to a hotel in Drummondville, northeast of Montreal, last July, armed with enough pills to kill her, and an exacto knife to slit their own wrists.

But police were alerted by the mother's father after the women left him a suicide letter, as well as detailed funeral arrangements for the three of them - and apologies for what they were about to do.

As an Amber Alert emergency search got underway, the girl saw herself on television in the hotel room later that evening. The defendants took her into the woods for the night, but were spotted and arrested the next day.

"The court would like to stress the extreme gravity of wanting to kill a child," Judge Chabot said, acquiescing to the joint sentence recommendation of the Crown and the defence of two years minus a day to be served in the community, followed by three years probation.

"A child is not merchandise but a human being. A child has rights and is an individual apart from her parents. She is not an object to be used, or a crutch."

Relying on psychiatric evaluations of the two defendants, the Crown portrayed the mother, 31 and grandmother, 59, as having a "fusional" or co-dependent relationship: they tended to amplify or distort events and circumstances around them when they were together, feeding off each other in an unhealthy - even dangerous - way.

It's the kind of relationship the mother was developing with her own daughter, said Crown prosecutor Marcel Patenaude, and against her ex-husband, with whom she was mired in a bitter custody dispute over the child.

The ex-husband was himself the victim of a car-bomb explosion outside his apartment two months before the incident in question, and had his leg amputated as a result. No arrests have been made, and there has been no evidence to link the explosion to the conspiracy in question, Mr. Patenaude said.

"[The grandmother] feels ashamed and felt crippled," explained Alain Dubois, the older woman's lawyer. "So when [her daughter] had these black ideas she went along with them."

If the Crown agreed to what appears to be a light sentence for a crime that could have meant life in prison for the defendants, it was largely because both have recognized the gravity of what they were about to do - they pleaded guilty in December - and have sought psychological help for their problems.

Among the conditions Judge Chabot imposed on them yesterday is that the two defendants continue their therapy, and are forbidden from living together.

Both will be under house arrest for eight months, with permission to leave only for work, emergencies, therapy, and in the case of the mother, for supervised visits with her daughter.

The little girl is doing well, Mr. Patenaude said, now in kindergarten and living with her father, oblivious to the conspiracy to kill her, or the criminal charges laid against her mother and grandmother.

Finally Mr. Patenaude said he was also influenced by the wishes of the child's father, who didn't want his daughter to have to visit her mother in jail.

From the National Post, April 23, 2005;

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c1f4deab-f4e2-4c48-84da-aabd36705456

Court grants leniency in plot to kill child

Canada East, Times&Transcript, As published on page B8 on April 23, 2005

http://www.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050423/TTNEWS03/204230565/-1/TTNEWS

LONGUEUIL, Que. (CP) - A Quebec Superior Court judge spared a mother and grandmother prison time today, giving them both conditional sentences for conspiring to murder a five-year-old child.

Justice Jean-Jude Chabot called it a terrible crime of pride - to plot to kill one's little girl so the other parent can't have her.

The defendants' names cannot be printed to protect the girl's identity.

The two had taken the girl from their home in Longueuil to a hotel in Drummondville in July, armed with enough pills to kill the child. They also had a knife to slit their own wrists.

But police were alerted by the mother's father. The defendants had left him a suicide note as well as details of funeral arrangements for the three of them - and apologies for what they were about to do.

The trio were spotted and arrested the next day.

"The court would like to stress the extreme gravity of wanting to kill a child," Chabot said as he agreed to the sentence jointly recommended by the Crown and the defence: two years less a day, to be served in the community, followed by three years' probation.