Children’s Aid Society knew women zip-tied boys into pyjamas but didn’t intervene, Ontario murder trial told
CBC
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.
The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) knew Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber were zip-tying two boys into one-piece pyjamas and their case worker didn’t tell them to stop, according to an email shown at the couple’s weeks-long murder trial in Milton, Ont.
Holly Simmons, their Halton CAS worker at the time, emailed the two prospective parents in July 2019 and acknowledged they used zip ties so the boys couldn’t take off their clothes, in order to control “urine” and for “safety.”
The worker then advised Cooney and Hamber to stop using zip ties, but only on the tents the boys had been sleeping in.
“In the unlikely event of a fire, this would prevent the children escaping the tent,” Simmons wrote on July 3, 2019.
The brothers continued to live with Cooney and Hamber for years, under the supervision of the CAS, until the older boy died, severely malnourished, when he was 12 years old in December 2022.
The Superior Court trial began in mid-September before a judge alone, Justice Clayton Conlan. CBC Hamilton is referring to the boy who died as L.L. and his younger brother as J.L., who's now 13 and testified earlier in the proceedings. The Indigenous brothers' identities are protected under a publication ban.
Cooney and Hamber are charged with first-degree murder of L.L. as well as confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L.
They've pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Most of this week, Cooney was under intense cross-examination by assistant Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie.
Court has heard from Cooney that the boys were routinely zip-tied into tube-like sleep sacks, wetsuits, onesie pyjamas and hockey helmets.
Cooney said the CAS was aware she and Hamber used zip ties and their worker only told them to stop when it came to confining the boys in tents on their bed.
The boys were also locked in their bedrooms for as long as 18 hours at a time, and the women controlled when and what the boys ate.
“There were a lot of things you did to control, and I’m going to suggest torture the boys,” said MacKenzie on Friday.
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