Ontario Foster Mothers Jailed for Life Over Murder of 12-Year-Old Indigenous Boy
Two Ontario women have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years after being convicted of the first-degree murder of their 12-year-old Indigenous foster son and the prolonged abuse of his younger brother.
Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney received the mandatory sentence on Friday after an emotional hearing in Milton, where grieving relatives, community members and the surviving brother described the devastating impact of years of abuse.
The women were also convicted of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon and failing to provide the necessities of life to the younger child.
The boys had been placed in the women’s care in 2017 as foster children while the couple pursued adoption. Five years later, the older boy died in the basement of their home after suffering prolonged mistreatment.
His younger brother, who later testified during the trial, told the court he was regularly deprived of food, confined for long periods and subjected to cruel punishment.
Delivering the sentence, Clayton Conlan said the pair bore the highest level of moral responsibility, finding they had subjected the children to sustained abuse that ultimately claimed one child’s life.
The boys’ mother urged the court to remember her son not for the circumstances of his death but for the life he lived, calling him “a warrior” whose memory would forever remain with his family.
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