What the trial for an Ontario couple has heard so far from woman co-accused of killing boy, torturing brother

WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and sexual abuse.

Testimony in the trial for an Ontario couple charged in the death of one boy and what the Crown has alleged was the torture of his brother in their care is set to wrap up this week with co-accused Becky Hamber returning to the witness box.

Hamber has already faced four days of questioning from her and her wife Brandy Cooney's lawyers and the Crown. Since Jan. 12, Hamber has answered questions about how the couple treated the boys, while maintaining she loved and did nothing to harm them as they were going through the adoption process.

Last month, Cooney also testified over several days. The couple had been trying to adopt two brothers before one was found dead in the basement of their Burlington home.

The Indigenous boys' identities are protected under a publication ban. For our coverage, we're referring to the older boy, who was 12 when he died on Dec. 21, 2022, as L.L. and his younger brother as J.L.

Hamber, 46, and Cooney, 44, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of L.L., as well as not guilty to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L. The judge-alone trial, which began in mid-September in Milton Superior Court, is before Justice Clayton Conlan.

The Crown has argued that Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the brothers, who had been living with the couple for about five years after being with foster parents in Ottawa.

The trial has heard paramedics found L.L. unresponsive, soaking wet and lying on the basement floor of his bedroom, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he looked as if he could be six years old, even though he was twice that age. He died shortly after in hospital. 

A central question throughout the proceedings has been why L.L. was so severely malnourished in the last year of his life. A pathologist previously told court that malnourishment could’ve caused or contributed to his death.

Cooney and Hamber have both testified they didn't withhold food as punishment.

During Hamber's testimony on Monday, the Crown played a video from August 2021 showing L.L., wearing a wetsuit and red mittens, and crying while repeatedly asking for food, saying, “It’s not fair. I’m hungry.”

The Crown told court the video showed the boy was extremely thin and while he was standing at the top of a staircase, the bones of his neck could be seen. Hamber said she didn't notice that and wasn't worried because his weight tended to fluctuate.

Hamber has said she did not think L.L. was at risk, and noted she was working to get him into an Oakville eating disorders clinic. 

Crown lawyer Kelli Frew has questioned why Hamber was so focused on a particular clinic and noted L.L. had been accepted into an eating disorder therapy program in the fall of 2022, but Hamber declined it.