CAS workers failed to record important info, missed red flags before boy’s death, Ontario murder trial told

WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.

Halton Children’s Aid Society (CAS) workers failed to document important information and didn’t investigate red flags related to the condition of two boys in a Burlington, Ont., couple’s care, a defence lawyer told the women’s murder trial.

Nabeel Sheiban cross-examined retired child protection worker Lisa Potts on Friday, asking about various notes recorded by adoption workers and their correspondence with Becky Hamber, his client, and Brandy Cooney.

In one message read by Sheiban, Hamber said the older boy was “unhealthy” and had an eating disorder.

“It should be a red flag, but I can’t speak as to why it wasn’t,” Potts said.

“It is obvious [he] is underweight and does not look healthy,” Sheiban said in quoting Hamber. The lawyer then argued: “This should have been a red flag.”

“Yes,” Potts responded.

12-year-old boy found emaciated

The child in question, referred to as L.L. for our coverage of this trial, died Dec. 21, 2022.

The judge-only trial in Milton’s Ontario Superior Court has heard paramedics found the 12-year-old 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. He died shortly after in hospital.

Hamber and Cooney have pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. They have also pleaded not guilty to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to the younger boy, J.L.

The Indigenous boys’ identities are protected by a standard publication ban.

The Crown argues the couple abused and neglected the children, ultimately leading to L.L.’s death.

Their defence lawyers argue the women were doing their best to care for children with high needs and significant behavioural problems, with little help from CAS and service providers.

Witnesses including first responders, medical experts, teachers, therapists and doctors have testified at the proceedings, which began in mid-September.

CAS staff failed to meet standard: retired worker

On Oct. 31, the Crown questioned Potts, who reviewed CAS files related to L.L. and J.L. The trial heard that even though in-person physicals are required by the government, Hamber and Cooney did not take L.L. to a doctor’s appointment between January 2018 and December 2021. The trial also was told CAS workers never spoke to L.L. alone despite receiving multiple reports about suspected abuse, even though meetings with children are supposed to be private.

During her cross-examination a week later, Cooney’s lawyer, Kim Edward, asked Potts if private visits are key to how CAS operates. She said they are, but agreed it was “glaringly obvious” either Hamber or Cooney was always present.

Potts said CAS workers did not document why meetings were not private.

When asked, she agreed CAS has the right to demand private visits and could even attend a residence with police to enforce that right. However, CAS never took that option in the months before L.L. died. 

Edward also asked why there was never an in-person surprise CAS visit in response to concerns Potts later investigated, such as name-calling, pureed food and bottle feeding.

“I cannot because I was not the worker,” Potts said.

Lawyers have named several CAS employees who worked with L.L. and J.L., and Sheiban has suggested they lost their jobs over how they handled the case. No current or former CAS workers other than Potts have testified. 

Whether Cooney and Hamber properly fed the boys has been a central question in the trial.

The couple’s lawyers have said L.L. struggled with binge eating and “rumination” — the regurgitation of food. Leading up to his death in 2022, they said, L.L. had a severe eating disorder, was throwing up every day and had to be cared for like a baby.

On Friday, Sheiban noted multiple instances in 2021 in which CAS workers documented L.L. telling them about the food he ate.

He also brought up Pott’s bottle-feeding investigation, and said Hamber and Cooney were feeding the boys pureed and bottled food because an attachment therapist had recommended it was a way to deal with childhood trauma. Documents show CAS was aware of that, Sheiban said. 

Following Potts on Friday, the trial started to hear testimony from Matthew Bursey, vice-president of service for Reach Out Centre for Kids. He took to the witness box again Monday, outlining some of the programming his Halton-based centre provided to L.L. and J.L. 

The trial is scheduled to continue until at least early December.  

If you’re affected by this report, you can look for mental health support through resources in your province or territory.