There should be a special circle of hell

[Scooter]

An inquest into the starvation death of a five-year-old boy at the hands of his grandparents is hearing that the other children in the house were told to call him a pig.

Jeffrey Baldwin died was starved to death in 2002 by his grandparents — Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman — who gained custody of the boy and his three siblings despite the fact both of them had previous convictions for child abuse.

The coroner's inquest into Jeffrey's death is watching video statements today from Jeffrey's siblings about the abuse he suffered.

Jeffrey's eldest sister can be seen telling police that Bottineau taught her and her other brother not to like Jeffrey and her other sister.

She says Jeffrey and the other sister were only allowed out of their bedroom for meals and even then they had to stand in what she called the “pig corner.”

The girl says Jeffrey and the other sister were locked in their room at night so they had to urinate and defecate in there.

“They were called pigs,” the girl says on the video interview from March 2003. The police officer asks her why.

“Just cause they were bad in every single way...My grandma always had to clean up their bedroom, they had to, she had to clean up the poo and it stinked in there and it's like a pig pen.”

A pediatric nutritionist told the coroner's inquest Wednesday that when Jeffrey died in November 2002 he weighed just 21 pounds — less than he did on his first birthday.

Dr. Stanley Zlotkin examined Jeffrey's case and told the inquest that in all his years of research in Third World countries he had never seen a child so malnourished and stunted.

Pathologist Dr. Gregory Wilson told the inquest Jeffrey would have “suffered greatly” as he died.

I would love to know how Catholic Children's Aid could have dropped the ball so completely on this - not only inexplicably not knowing about the previous convictions, but then not seeming to have performed any follow up after custody was transferred to the grandparents. Someone needs to be charged criminally here, and I'm not just talking about the abusers.

[Big RR]

Scooter--where did this take place? I'm not sure what "Catholic Children's Aid has to do with it, but wouldn't a court be required to grant custody, not an aid society? And wouldn't social services be responsible for the follow up monitoring?

[Joe Guy]

Apparently, the Children's Aid Societies in Canada are government funded and provide child protection services.

Here's a link to Toronto's CCAS

[Big RR]

Thanks Joe Guy--that explains it.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Bottineau and Kidman were granted custody of Jeffrey and his three siblings without so much as a background check. Both had a previous child abuse conviction — a fact that neither the Catholic Children’s Aid Society nor the York Children’s Aid Society realized until after Jeffrey died.

“After the grandparents were granted custody of each child by the court, the children’s aid society closed their file and no worker oversaw or checked in on the family,” said coroner’s counsel Jill Witkin.

“Moreover, no worker performed any background checks on Elva and Norman prior to the transfer of a child, no criminal record checks and no internal checks of past society files. Had proper checks been done, they would have revealed a horrific history of incapable parenting and child abuse.”

Major changes have been implemented at the CCAS and children’s aid societies across Ontario since Jeffrey’s death, including increased family history, background and record checks. Relatives who become caregivers are also subjected to the same rigorous standards as foster parents and adoptive parents.

http://www.citynews.ca/2013/09/09/inque ... -underway/

There are 46 children's aid societies across Ontario
Six of the children's aid societies are Aboriginal and three are faith-based (two Catholic and one Jewish)
Each society is an independent, non-profit organization run by a board of directors elected from the local community

http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/En ... index.aspx

And I think there is a special circle awaiting the arrival of these grandparents

Meade