The Crown is seeking what could be one of the longest sentences ever for similar crimes in the London region – and matching some of the longest ever recorded in Canada – for a couple convicted at a disturbing child sexual and physical abuse trial.
Assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser said at a Tuesday sentencing hearing they’re seeking 30 years in prison for the father, 57, and 25 years for the mother, 55, for the abuse of their four children, now adults, who testified last spring they were routinely brutalized in their strict, religious household.
“Our community does not accept this behaviour. Our country does not accept this behaviour. Our children must be protected and when they are not, when they are violated in the worst of ways, the punishment will reflect the crime,” Moser said to Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney.
“This was a protracted, unrepentant campaign of abuse.”
The estranged couple was convicted last spring after a marathon jury trial during which four of their children described horrific physical, emotional and sexual abuse during a 19-year period in several Ontario cities where the family lived until the children fled their London home in 2020.
“The abusers were the victims’ parents. These victims had no safe harbour, no parent to cling to, no one to keep the horrors at bay,” Moser said. “Our victims in this case also knew they weren’t alone. Their siblings were also suffering the same abuse. The only question was: Whose turn was it tonight?”
The jury trial lasted nearly 10 weeks and included testimony describing brutal sexual indignities and torture committed by both parents.
While home life was a harrowing nightmare for the children who tried to protect each other from the violence, the rest of the world saw an accomplished family with children who were successful in church, volunteer activities, employment and education.
The four children said their parents referred to the routine assaults as “consequences” for failing to meet parental standards. Any earnings they made went to the family’s expenses. They often were beaten, tied up or locked away in sheds, cupboards and basements without food and water. They were sexually assaulted and molested.
The mother was convicted of 18 counts including sexual assault, incest, forcible confinement, assault, administering noxious substances and choking. The father was convicted of 15 counts including multiple sexual assaults, forcible confinement, extortion and incest.
The identities of the children, and by extension their parents, are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
The victims testified through a remote closed-circuit connection during the trial and were not in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing. Three of the four children wrote victim impact statements. Moser and assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers read them into the record.
They spoke of chronic pain and migraines, post-traumatic stress disorder, permanent scars, sleepless nights and nightmares, loss of religious faith, and constant fear and anxiety. All of them asked Heeney to make sure their parents to never contact them again.
“I still don’t always feel safe in my own home. The years of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of my parents stole my childhood and continue to impact my life as an adult,” one of them wrote.
“This wasn’t the childhood I deserved and it’s left me with wounds I’m still trying to heal, wounds that may not heal,” another wrote.
Added another: “My mom and dad were my first bullies, my first abusers and the people I needed protection from.”
Moser said the Crown is seeking a longer sentence for the father because he was the principal in many of the serious sexual assaults and the mother was often party to them. The father also worked to keep the children from his wife after their marriage breakdown and continued to assault them.
Both parents maintained their innocence at the trial. Neither of them have a criminal record. The mother has been out of custody and on bail for most of the time since she was charged in 2020. Her defence lawyer, Phillip Millar, argued for an 11 1/2 year sentence, which, with time-served credits and house-arrest bail term factored in, would be reduced to a 10-year prison term.
Millar told Heeney the Crown’s high sentencing range wasn’t supported by the jury’s findings and hinted an appeal is in the works.
“If you look at what (the mother) has been convicted of, it is not one of the worst situations in the region. It doesn’t come close,” he said, adding he doubted a long sentence would send a message to child abusers.
Millar argued his client’s testimony, when she denied the crimes, contradicted what the children said. But Heeney reminded Millar his client was found guilty by a unanimous jury. “Her guilt, right now, is not a debatable issue. It is a legal fact.”
Millar said his client has the support of friends and neighbours. She’s diabetic and the Crown’s suggested sentence “would result in her spending the rest of her life in jail.”
The father’s defence lawyer, Victoria Strugurescu, argued for a 19 1/2 year prison sentence. With his time in custody factored in, the sentence would be reduced to 15 years.
She told Heeney her client is well-educated and highly respected by his peers. Friends described him as “a calm, peaceful person,” “compassionate, personable and honest” and “successful.”
Both parents were given an opportunity to speak to the judge. The father chose to say nothing, but the mother had prepared remarks.
She told Heeney, through tears, that she always has been a law-abiding citizen and doesn’t know why her children made the allegations against her and their father. She admitted to being “too strict” with them and she was “truly, truly sorry” for using hot sauce and soap to discipline them.
“With every breath I take, I maintain I did not commit these acts against my children,” she said and will respect the legal process “so that the truth may eventually come out.”
She said she forgives the children and hopes someday to understand why they accused her.
“They are still my babies and I cherish the moments that I remember with them,” she said. “In spite of all the current circumstances, I cannot not love them. I love them with all my heart and with all my soul.”
“I did not do any of this,” she said.
Heeney is expected to have a sentencing decision on Nov. 4.