WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.
In messages to her wife, Becky Hamber referred to herself as “Officer Hamber” and said one of the boys in her and Brandy Cooney’s care was “in Hamber Cooney prison.”
Those texts from Nov. 14, 2021, were one set of many shown at the women’s first-degree murder trial Tuesday in the Milton, Ont., court.
That was at least the second time, the women referred to themselves as jailers of two brothers they were trying to adopt, with Cooney referring to her father — who also lived with them and the brothers — as “Officer Cooney” in December 2020.
The brothers are referred to as L.L. and J.L. for CBC’s coverage of this trial since their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. L.L. was 12 when he died in Hamber and Cooney’s care on Dec. 21, 2022. His younger brother J.L., is now 13.
The Burlington, Ont., women have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in L.L.’s death at the trial that began in mid-September in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. They’ve entered the same plea related to charges of confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L. The Crown argues Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the Indigenous children.
Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie played the court more audio recordings taken from the women’s electronic devices and showed multiple sets of text message conversations.
Halton Regional Police Service Sgt. Julie Powers testified for the second day in a row. On Monday, the officer who led the investigation into Hamber and Cooney said police were able to extract data from the couple’s phones and iPad following their arrests in February 2024. Some were recordings the women took or saved from a security camera system they used to monitor the boys.
Court hears women discuss restricting boys’ freedoms as behavioural consequence
In an 80-minute recording MacKenzie played, the women scolded the older boy, L.L., for “peeing and pooping” himself. One of the women told the then-11-year-old he was “choosing” to do so in a misguided attempt to get what he wanted and was “years away from having free access to the washroom and the home.”
They referred to him standing in his room all day long and said they’d taken away his furniture due to “unsafe choices.”
The trial has been told that 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.
The women’s respective lawyers argue the couple did their best to care for children with high needs and significant behavioural problems, with little help from the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and service providers.
They say, for example, that the women had to confine the boys to keep them from running away, and dressed them in zip-tied wetsuits to keep them from peeing around the house. The defence also says the boys would harm themselves or others.
The judge-alone trial before Justice Clayton Conlan has heard from witnesses including first responders, medical experts, teachers, therapists, doctors and J.L. himself. The trial is expected to continue until at least mid-December.
In recording, women tell L.L. he will have a good life if he listens to them
In the 80-minute recording, one of the women told L.L., he was “worthy of love and happiness,” but needed to trust the couple knew what was best for him.
They told L.L. he had a traumatic upbringing in the foster care system but that it wasn’t his fault and they wanted him to rise above it. Otherwise, they said, he’d never have a family of his own.
Most of the boys’ responses in the recordings are unintelligible as if they’re far from the microphone.
In a 20-minute audio file dated Dec. 28, 2020, the women can be heard scolding J.L., who was eight-years-old at the time.
“You made our life hell for several years,” one of the women said, saying he broke one of their fingers during a tantrum
“I’m angry at you for breaking her finger, so what can I break on you?” one of the women asks.
They say he told them he wanted to die and question him about that.
“You’re not willing to try. You just want to die instead. That’s stupid,” one of them said.
“We love you no matter what” but “my like of you fluctuates,” one of the women said. “We don’t necessarily like you.”
The other chimed in: “I don’t at all.”
The recording ended with one of the women telling the boy that at night, he should get as cosy as he can “on a plank of wood” and say to himself, “I am safe. I am loved. I am a Hamber-Cooney.”
The trial has heard the boys slept in sacks on top of cots, sometimes zip-tied into tents. The defence has said that this was done to keep the boys from hurting themselves or running away.
Women told boys they ‘sacrificed’ their bodies to previous foster family
In three audio recordings the trial heard, the women told L.L. and J.L. they “sacrificed” their bodies to their previous foster family to get what they wanted.
The trial has heard that L.L and J.L. accused their previous foster family of abuse that investigators later deemed unfounded.
In court, J.L. said those allegations were never true and that he had been instructed to repeat them by Hamber and Cooney.
In the texts and recordings, the women mentioned things that have come up in the trial, including the boys eating pureed food and peeing or pooping outside the washroom.
“I don’t give a crap about pureeing your food until you’re 18,” Hamber said in one recorded conversation with J.L. “If you didn’t like baby food, you wouldn’t act like a baby.”
She also referenced him wearing a diaper and told him he should be able to control himself and his body.
J.L. previously testified that he was able to hold his bladder and bowels but sometimes, the women wouldn’t let him out of his room and he would have accidents.
MacKenzie also played a video that Powers described as Hamber taking a blueberry from L.L. as he cried and accused her of “withholding breakfast,” repeatedly saying “it’s not fair” and “I’m hungry.”
In October, a pediatrician testified L.L. was severely malnourished in the days before he died. Whether the couple fed him enough has been a central question in the trial.
Women demeaned boys in text messages
In text messages shown in court, the women frequently insulted L.L and J.L.
In an exchange with her father dated July 26, 2020, Cooney said L.L. had a nightmare about dying alone.
“Loser whiner cry baby poor me owww” she wrote. “I faked my sympathy for the douche.”
In a text exchange on Sept. 24, 2021, the women said L.L. had a rash caused by not drying himself properly.
“If I was them, I would be disgusted with myself,” Hamber wrote.
MacKenzie then showed a group selfie taken six days later of the couple posing with J.L. outside. The women are wearing orange T-shirts and holding an Every Child Matters sign.
The trial is set to resume Wednesday.
If you’re affected by this report, you can look for mental health support through resources in your province or territory.
