A 7-year-old girl believed to have been scalded and beaten to death in Laval instead inflicted the injuries that proved fatal during a seizure, according to what was presented at her mother’s trial.
First charged with criminal negligence causing death and assault, the 37-year-old finally pleaded guilty Thursday morning at the Laval courthouse to a reduced charge of failing to provide necessities to the her daughter’s existence.
The lady from Central Asia, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, thus avoids a jury trial which was to begin next month.
The case caused a stir in January 2021 when the child died. However, the summary of the facts submitted to the court reveals a nightmarish version of the months preceding the tragedy which contrasts with what had been made public at the time.
Behavioral problems
According to the facts presented in court, the girl had significant behavioral problems since the age of five. She said in particular that she liked hurting herself and verbalized her desire to kill her little sister.
“She cannot speak openly about her daughter’s issues with members of her community because of the judgments it may cause,” the mother reads in the Agreed Statement of Facts.
Then the child became increasingly anxious and aggressive due to confinement. The little girl then began repeatedly punching her mother in the face, who could not control her.
She is then “exhausted and at the end of her resources”, read the Crown prosecutor, Ms.e Karine Dalphond, in front of the accused, her face flushed with tears.
The situation between the accused and her daughter continued to deteriorate to the point where, in the fall of 2020, the victim refused any contact with her mother. She even forbade him to look at her and ordered him to stay locked up in his room.
A few weeks before the girl’s death, her mother was seen in a shop with her face completely bruised and covered in bruises, the result of her child’s seizures.
When an acquaintance tries to approach the mother, the little girl “starts hitting her, punching her hard and telling her to stop talking”, we can also read in the joint statement of the facts.
fateful days
On December 31, 2020, the accused saw her daughter’s sweater stained with blood in her bathroom sink.
“She thinks that she may be hurt, but does not dare to leave her room to ask for fear of causing a crisis”, we explained to the court.
On three occasions during the next 72 hours, a family member, who lived under the same roof and who usually took care of the victim, asked the accused to go to the pharmacy in order to buy bandages and saline water.
Asked what had happened, the woman who was taking care of the child replied that the victim “did this to himself in the basement shower and added that it was probably a skin reaction to hot water”.
The accused did not ask any more questions and made no approach to her daughter, whom she saw from behind only once.
She first saw her child again on January 3, 2021, when the child was brought to the foot of her bed. The child was already dead by then.
The accused called 911 several minutes later, after taking her youngest daughter to an acquaintance.
The victim was then taken to the hospital, where he was officially declared dead. According to the autopsy, it was caused by “very severe burns extending over 70% of his body”. These are compatible with burns caused by hot water.
The victim’s little sister, however, revealed several months later that the woman caring for her sister “pinched her and could put hot water on her body.”
The police investigation is still ongoing, but no other family members have been charged in the case.
The Crown asked for a jail sentence of two years less a day, while the defense instead argued for a suspended sentence with community service.
Judge Yvan Poulin will hand down his sentence next April.